108 WATER SUPPLY TO SYDNEY TiY GHAVITATION. 



At this stage of my Burvey I considered that the project was 

 perfectly secure, without any necessity of then inspecting the 

 western slopes of the coast range to the south, which I knew con- 

 tinued on their average rise of 40 to 41 feet to the mile southerly. 

 The pleasures of success, however, goaded me on to see what fur- 

 ther waters could be turned from their present southerly courses, 

 backwards to the direction of my proposed northerly channel. 

 This extra part of the work having to be made through a very 

 scrubby country, it was accomplished with the aneroid only by 

 three subsequent explorations of the neighbourhood. At my first 

 of these later visits, the aneroid was set at a point on Westmacott's 

 Pass, which I knew by true measurement was exactly 50 feet 

 above the proposed tunnel mouth, and level with the supposed 

 Lake Loddon w r hen full. I traversed a few miles of the country 

 to the south, with this level being maintained, and I was quite 

 pleased to find how many beautiful brooks we could intereepl at 

 that level in a very short distance of barely three miles from the 

 starting point. Some considerable contouring of the creeks and 

 hills had to be done, to gather up, as it were, Knight's Creek, 

 and the three most northerly sources of the Cataract River, but 

 I proved the easy means of getting them all for our purposes. 

 In this short distance alone there was evidence of being able to 

 obtain fine permanent streams, which would be of themselves 

 probably equal, in ordinary seasons, to the present consumption 

 of Sydney. Having fixed A^arious station-pegs to mark the levels 

 along this country at 50 feet over the proposed tunnel mouth, 

 and after determining such levels at these northerly head sources 

 of the Cataract Biver, I found before me to the south another 

 favourable rise of about 210 feet, in a short distance of not more 

 than half a mile. By this new elevation we came upon another 

 plateau behind Wonona and Mount Kiera, and from thence, at 

 an elevation of 1,380 feet, we commanded a magnificent view to 

 the south of Mount Kiera, Mount Kembla, Mount "Wanyanbilla, 

 and the "Saddleback" mountain behind Kiama, besides which 

 we commanded a view of the lowlands by Dapto and Kiama frin- 

 ged with the yellow sands and white surf of the sea, and a great 

 expanse of the ocean on the south-east, whilst to the westward 

 we had the additional panoramic view of the forests inland towards 

 Bargo, Mittagong, and the heads of the Shoalhaven, which made 

 the distant view surpassingly grand. 



The lay of the western slopes of the coast range, then before 

 me to the left or east, gave seeming evidence that we could still 

 continue the advantageous and average rise of 40 feet to the mile, 

 along these slopes right away to Mount Kiera and Mount Kembla, 

 by contouring the gullies and spurs of the coast mountain, should 

 any additional waters be required for Sydney in its future en- 

 larged state. The scrub up there was so troublesome and the 



