112 OUE COAL AND OUR COAL POETS. 



by easy gradients to three and five fathoms of water, by a total 

 distance not exceeding forty miles. 



Sncb being the case, the haulage at even a half-penny per ton 

 per mile, as the proved working cost of colliery railways, in- 

 cluding wear and tear of rails, would make only Is. 6d. per ton. 

 Thus, under these circumstances it might not be unreasonable 

 to expect that from 5,000 to 10,000 tons a day could arrive daily 

 from that quarter alone, for the supply of some of the foreign 

 ships that would come with confidence to our great coal country, 

 when we can give quickest possible dispatch frem either New- 

 castle or Sydney. 



Apropos to the dam at George's River above noticed, I am 

 quite aware of the objections that will be raised respecting its 

 formation, as being, in my opinion, the best means of making a 

 highway for the transit of the southei'n coal to Sydney. 



It is not in the province of this paper to touch on the subject 

 of any water-supply scheme in this direction, unless it be to 

 show briefly that the erection of an immense dam at George's 

 E-iver should be no stumbling-block to the coal enterprise ; and 

 therefore I think it necessary to say here that I could show good 

 cause why such a dam might be made efli'ective in every way, and 

 to yield of itself a compensating interest on whatever capital it 

 might cost, if it was undertaken by a public Company, under 

 liberal concessions from the Government. 



Entirely in view of this soutliern coal enterprise, I believe that 

 the dam might be made higldy remunerative in the mode sug- 

 gested by me in a letter I addressed to the public prints some 

 months ago, even if it were only to give the motory power I 

 pointed out as being available thereby. 



For further substantiation of this assertion, I would refer this 

 Society to a recent number of "Dingler's PolytechniealJournal," 

 published this year in Augsburg (which came under my notice 

 only a week or two ago, and which I now lay on the table). The 

 article is written by the celebrated German engineer, G. Delabar, 

 now of St. Gallen, and contains a description of the grand water- 

 works at Freibourg, in Switzexdand, as conceived and carried out 

 solely by the genius of Herr Ritter, an engineer of that town. 



On an expenditure of 2,000,000 francs, of privately subscribed 

 capital, this most able man has succeeded in just completing 

 (irtdthin four years) works that must be among the greatest 

 wonders of the present age. By a dam of G-1,000 cubic metres, 

 equal to 82,150 cubic yards, made across the River Saane, which 

 flows through a deep gorge, and costing 310,000 francs — equal to 

 £13,600 — for the embankment alone, that is built of cement and 

 pebbles. By this means and by the further aid of hydraulic 

 turbines, he has obtained motory action up to the extent of 2,600 

 to 4,000 horse-power. 



