From This Point, In Conformity To The Resolution I Had Made On Quitting
The Macquarie River, I Pursued A North-
East course; but after
encountering numerous difficulties from the country being an entire
marsh, interspersed with quicksands, until the 20th
Of August, and
finding I was surrounded by bogs, I was reluctantly compelled to take a
more easterly course, having practically proved that the country could
not be traversed on any point deviating from the main range of hills which
bound the interior; although partial dry portions of level alluvial land
extend from their base westerly to a distance which I estimate to exceed
one hundred and fifty miles, before it is gradually lost in the waters
which I am clearly convinced cover the interior. The alteration in our
course more easterly, soon brought us into a very different description
of country, forming a remarkable contrast to that which had so long
occupied us. Numerous fine streams, running northerly, watered a rich and
beautiful country, through which we passed until the 7th of September,
when we crossed the meridian of Sydney, as also the most elevated known
land in New South Wales, being, then in latitude 31. S. We were
afterwards considerably embarrassed and impeded by very lofty mountains.
On the 20th of September, we gained the summit of the most elevated
mountain in this extensive range, and from it we were gratified with a
view of the ocean, at a distance of fifty miles; the country beneath us
being formed into an immense triangular valley, the base of which
extended along the coast from the Three Brothers on the south, to the
high land north of Smoky Cape.
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