Magnitude when it
should have received the streams we had crossed, independently of any
which it may receive from the east (which, from the boldness and height
of the country, I presume must be at least as many as from the south),
some idea may be formed when I inform your excellency, that at this point
it exceeded in breadth and apparent depth the Hawkesbury at Windsor, and
that many of the reaches were of grander and more extended proportion
than the admired one on the Nepean River, from the Warragamba to Emu
Plains.
"Resolving to keep as near the river as possible during the remainder
of our course to Bathurst, and endeavour to ascertain at least on the
west side what waters fall into it, on the 22nd we proceeded up the
river, and, between the point quitted and Bathurst, crossed the sources
of numberless streams all running into the Macquarie; two of them were
nearly as large as that river itself is at Bathurst. The country whence
all these streams derive their source was mountainous and irregular, and
appeared equally so on the east side of the Macquarie.
"This description of country extended to the immediate vicinity of
Bathurst, but to the west of those lofty ranges the land was broken into
low grassy hills and fine valleys, watered by rivulets rising on the
western side of the mountains, which on their eastern side pour their
waters directly into the Macquarie.
