I Think It A Probable Conjecture That This River Is The Channel By Which
All The Waters Rising In Those
Ranges of hills to the westward of Port
Jackson, known by the name of the Blue Mountains, and which do
Not fall
into the sea on the east coast, are conveyed to these immense inland
marshes; its sinuous course causing it to overflow its banks on a much
higher level than the present, and in consequence, forming those low wet
levels which are in the very neighbourhood of the government depot. Its
length of course is, in my opinion, the principal cause of our finding
any thing like a stream for the last one hundred miles, as the immense
body of water which must undoubtedly be at times collected in such a
river must find a vent somewhere, but being spent during so long a
course without any accession, the only wonder is, that even those waters
should cause a current at so great a distance from their source;
everything however indicates, as before often observed, that in dry
seasons the channel of the river is empty, or forms only a chain of
ponds. It appears to have been a considerable length of time since the
banks were overflowed, certainly not for the last year; and I think it
probable they are not often so: the quantity of water must indeed be
immense, and of long accumulation, in the upper marshes, before the
whole of this vast country can be under water.
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