“q 
43 
The Water of Sydney Harbour. 
By Rey. W. Hey Swarr, M.A., Warden of St. Paul’s College. 
[Read before the Royal Society of N.S. W., 4 August, 1879.] 
. 
its neighbourhood forcible reminders that the citizens hav 
not yet successfully solved the pressing though unheroic 
problem of keeping their surroundings pure and wholesome. 
have, however, no intention of meddling, except quite in- 
directly, with the difficult and expensive ideas suggested by 
the need of sanitary improvement. The question here asked 
and partly answered is a question of simple fact. Whatever 
Introductory.—There are not wanting in the city of Sydney and 
e 
present obtained may be found in the appeal for increased con- 
tributions from private members contained in the Vice-President’s 
at the commencement of the present Session. : 
Part selected.—The portion of the harbour hitherto examined is 
the irregular basin comprising Darling Harbour, Blackwattle 
Cove, and Rozella, White, and Johnstone’s Bays. The group of 
inlets indicated by these names has an aggregate superficial area 
of about 1,800,000 square yards. Its shore-line is approximately 
@ and a h - ; : 
impurities from the wharves, manufactories, and other 
accessories of a busy and crowded life, with which it is to a large 
— surrounded, 
ethod.—For the present p the examination of a sample - 
of water consists in prea’ brs the quantity of ammonia present 
in it in solution, and also the quantity of ammonia yielded by the 
destruction of the organic matter which it contains. ere 
thus two stages in the process. A measured volume of the water 
