This Line Of
Road Is The Most Frequented, And Has Been The Longest Inhabited
Of Any In The Colony.
The whole land is enclosed
with high railings, for the farmers have not succeeded in
rearing hedges.
There are many substantial houses and good
cottages scattered about; but although considerable pieces of
land are under cultivation, the greater part yet remains as
when first discovered.
The extreme uniformity of the vegetation is the most
remarkable feature in the landscape of the greater part of
New South Wales. Everywhere we have an open woodland,
the ground being partially covered with a very thin pasture,
with little appearance of verdure. The trees nearly all
belong to one family, and mostly have their leaves placed in
a vertical, instead of as in Europe, in a nearly horizontal
position: the foliage is scanty, and of a peculiar pale green
tint, without any gloss. Hence the woods appear light and
shadowless: this, although a loss of comfort to the traveller
under the scorching rays of summer, is of importance to the
farmer, as it allows grass to grow where it otherwise would
not. The leaves are not shed periodically: this character
appears common to the entire southern hemisphere, namely,
South America, Australia, and the Cape of Good Hope. The
inhabitants of this hemisphere, and of the intertropical
regions, thus lose perhaps one of the most glorious, though
to our eyes common, spectacles in the world - the first
bursting into full foliage of the leafless tree. They may,
however, say that we pay dearly for this by having the land
covered with mere naked skeletons for so many months.
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