On The Higher Ridges Of The Hills, And
Occasionally On Their Sides, Were Many Fine Cypresses:
There was nothing
grand or imposing in the scenery; but it was simple and attractive from
its richness and extent:
The hills sometimes rose into singular forms
which were continually changing in our progress, and appeared well
calculated to afford an ample range of sheep pasture. The extensive vale
in which we stopped was named Goulburn Vale, in honour of the under
Secretary of State for the colonies.
September 2. - Our expectations of finding a river to the eastward, were
this day verified: after passing for eleven miles across this beautiful
vale, we came to a deep and rapid stream running to the north, through
the valley whose eastern side it waters: finding it too deep to be
forded, we constructed a bridge across a narrow part of it, by felling
such large trees as would meet, by which the baggage was taken over: the
horses were swum across. One of the men, foolishly attempting to swim
over on a horse, nearly paid for his imprudence with his life: as he
could not swim, he was carried down the stream near a quarter of a mile,
and was several minutes under water. His body being providentially washed
across a log, was the means of his preservation. It was late in the
afternoon before our passage across was effected, so that we halted on
the banks. This was the largest interior river (with the exception of the
Macquarie and Castlereagh), which we had yet seen. It would be impossible
to find a finer or more luxuriant country than it waters: north and
south, its extent is unknown, but it is certainly not less than sixty
miles, whilst the breadth of the vale is on a medium about twenty miles.
This space between the bounding hills is not altogether level, but rises
into gentle inequalities, and independently of the river is well watered;
the grass was most luxuriant; the timber good and not thick: in short, no
place in the world can afford more advantages to the industrious settler,
than this extensive vale. The river was named Peel's River, in honour of
the Right Hon. Robert Peel. A great many new plants were found to-day and
yesterday, chiefly of the orchis tribe [Note: Orchideae of Juss. and
BROWN.]: we saw numbers of the ornithorynchus, or water mole, in the
river, also a few turtle: we were not successful in obtaining any fish,
so that we were unable to decide whether it contained the same species as
the Macquarie.
September 3. - After passing over a fine and gently rising country for
between four and five miles, we ascended a very lofty chain of hills,
being the eastern boundary of Goulburn Vale; these hills were of
good soil, and covered with excellent grass to their very summits.
Ascending two of the highest ridges, several circular orifices were
observed on them about twelve feet in diameter, and five feet deep.
Great quantities of small stones resembling basaltes were in heaps
round the edges, at a little distance from which the stones were
perpendicular, and firmly bedded in the earth; many of them regular
six-sided figures, and all fractured into laminae, from two to nine
inches in thickness. The rocks upon this range were of a peculiarly hard
quality, and of a deep blue colour, approaching to black when broken. The
country easterly appeared broken into a series of rocky detached hills:
and on descending this range, we found an immediate change in the quality
of the soil, being in the valleys of a light coarse sand, the surface
covered with gritty particles as from pulverised coarse granite. The
difference in the rocks composing the hills was here very remarkable,
being a very coarse granite of the same description as in the
neighbourhood of Bathurst, scattered in immense masses both in the
valleys and on the hills; and our astonishment was more than once
excited at the causes which could have effected their removal from their
primitive bed. On a hill near which we encamped, was a single mass of
granite apparently thrown up perpendicularly from the bosom of the earth:
it was twenty-six feet high and had six distinct sides, ending in an
irregular point at the summit, and was forty-eight feet in circumference.
The valleys, though sandy, afforded us plenty of good grass and water,
and the hills furnished abundant employment for the botanical collector.
September 4. - After leaving the valley in which we encamped, we entered
one much more extensive, and communicating with Goulburn Vale. Between
five and six miles on our route, we reached a beautiful small river
coming from the eastward and joining Peel's River, of which it appears to
be a principal branch. For the remainder of the day's journey, we
proceeded up the fine valley which this stream watered, bounded on the
north and south by lofty and fertile hills covered with rich herbage,
having numerous smaller valleys and streams terminating in this principal
valley. The whole scenery was thinly clothed with wood, and occasionally
a bold craggy promontory terminating at the river gave it a diversity,
which its general softness of feature or outline required: there were no
principal ranges of hills, but they broke in and upon each other, forming
the utmost variety of shape. The rocks and stones which composed the
bases and summits of these hills, were not less various than their form:
scarcely two were alike. Granite, coarse porphyry, freestone, and
whinstone were frequently found on the same hill, and the beds of the
streams were of every variety of pebble. This fine stream received the
name of Cockburn River.
September 5. - Our course this day sometimes led us over very elevated
ridges, and at other times through deep and rich valleys. Some of these
hills were at least three thousand feet in height, and clothed with grass
to their summits. Others of the less elevated were entirely free from
rocks, and of the finest soil.
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