106 
G eology oe Sydney. 
to the noble buildings that adorn our city. Saunders 5 
Quarry, at the foot of Harris-street, is, perhaps, the 
most accessible locality to see these beds of sandstone 
in situ , and to see monoliths quarried that might 
build a pyramid. 
But, although the structure and intimate compo- 
sition of the sandstone may be the same around 
Sydney and on the Blue Mountains, there the resem- 
blance ends. The sandstones on the Mountains are 
weathered and scored by Nature’s sculptors — rain and 
rivers — to an extent that remains geologically impos- 
sible along the coast. A glance at Fig. 31 will show 
why this should be so. It will be seen that on the 
Mountains the sandstones are lifted quite two 
thousand feet above sea-level, whereas at Sydney the 
sandstones are for the most part below sea-level. In 
the battle between the warring elements of Nature, 
the Mountain sandstones are exposed to the full 
fire of the enemy ; nearer Sydney, their lines are 
safely entrenched below sea-level. Their pillars and 
battlements of rock, which, like ruined fortresses, 
stand up from every valley in the Mountains, tell a tale 
of destruction such as the concentrated hurricanes of 
fire and steel, that ploughed the earth at Plevna, 
could not effect in a thousand years. A description 
of one of these valleys by Charles Darwin will be read 
with interest, more particularly if we anticipate a 
little, and take for granted that these valleys are 
entirely due to atmospheric agencies. 
