298 
Geology of Sydney. 
axis of the movement running north and south about 
thirty miles inland from the coast. Evidences of this 
movement can be found at Lapstone Hill, near 
Penrith. But authorities are not agreed as to whether 
a simple fold or a fault exists in that locality. There 
are no two opinions, however, on the fact that the 
country on the mountains proper has been uplifted 
quite 3,000 feet, and that the coastal region has also 
been uplifted and subsequently depressed. 
Mr. Wilkinson was of opinion that the western 
portion of the basin referred to remains at or nearly 
at its original elevation. The central part was 
faulted down, and forms the present coastal region, 
while the eastern portion is depressed beneath the 
oceanic depths of the Pacific. “ Port Hacking,” he 
wrote, “is over a very deep portion of the coal 
basin. The eastern portion of this basin has been 
apparently faulted and thrown down beneath the 
water of the Pacific Ocean, the precipitous coast, and a 
line about twenty miles east from it, marking approxi- 
mately the lines of dislocation. The deep soundings 
immediately beyond this would seem to favour this 
view, so that here the bed of the ocean probably 
consists of the old laud surface which once formed a 
continuation of that upon which the city of Sydney 
now stands, and which has been faulted to a depth of 
over 1200 feet. The length of the faulted area is not 
yet known, but it probably does not extend along the 
coast beyond, if so far as, the north and south limits 
of the Colony. 
