It Might, Perhaps, Be Properly Termed The Glen Of Many
Windings, As It Was Formed Of Several Detached Lofty Hills; Between Each
Of Which Deep Ravines Were Formed, Communicating In Times Of Rain Their
Waters To This Main One.
August 19.
- Full of the hopes entertained yesterday, at half past eight
o'clock we pursued our course down Glenfinlass. A mile and a half
brought us into the valley which we had seen on our first descending
into the glen: imagination cannot fancy anything more beautifully
picturesque than the scene which burst upon us. The breadth of the
valley to the base of the opposite gently rising hills was, between
three and four miles, studded with fine trees, upon a soil which for
richness can nowhere he excelled; its extent north and south we could
not see: to the west it was bounded by the lofty rocky ranges by which
we had entered it; this was covered to the summit with cypresses and
acacia in full bloom: a few trees of the sterculia heterophylla, with
their bright green foliage, gave additional beauty to the scene. In the
centre of this charming valley ran a strong and beautiful stream, its
bright transparent waters dashing over a gravelly bottom, intermingled
with large stones, forming at short intervals considerable pools, in
which the rays of the sun were reflected With a brilliancy equal to that
of the most polished mirror. I should have been well contented to have
found this to be the Macquarie River, and at first conceived it to be
so. Under this impression, I intended stopping upon its banks for the
remainder of the day, and then proceeding up the stream southerly.
Whilst we were waiting for the horses to come up we crossed the stream,
and wishing to see as much of the country on its banks northerly, as
possible, I proceeded down the stream, and had scarcely rode a mile when
I was no less astonished than delighted to find that it joined a very
fine river, coming from the east-south-east from among the chain of low
grassy hills, bounding the east side of the valley in which we were.
This then was certainly the long sought Macquarie, the sight of which
amply repaid us for all our former disappointments. Different in every
respect from the Lachlan, it here formed a river equal to the Hawkesbury
at Windsor, and in many parts as wide as the Nepean at Emu Plains. These
noble streams were connected by rapids running over a rocky and pebbly
bottom, but not fordable, much resembling the reaches and falls at the
crossing place at Emuford, only deeper: the water was bright, and
transparent, and we were fortunate enough to see it at a period when it
was neither swelled beyond its proper dimensions by mountain floods, nor
contracted by summer droughts. From its being at least four times larger
than it is at Bathurst, even in a favourable season, it must have
received great accessions of water from the mountains north-easterly;
for from the course it has run from Bathurst, and the number of streams
we have crossed all running to form it from the south and south-west, I
do not think it can receive many more from that quarter between us and
Bathurst, at least of sufficient strength to have formed the
present river.
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