440 NEW SOUTH WALES. [chap. xix. 



locked harbours, I have noticed in many parts of South America. 

 To apply these ideas to the sandstone platforms of New South 

 Wales, I imagine that the strata were heaped by the action ot 

 strong currents, and of the undulations of an open sea, on an 

 irregular bottom ; and that the valley-like spaces thus left un- 

 filled had their steeply sloping flanks worn into cliffs, during a 

 slow elevation of the land ; the worn-down sandstone being: re- 

 moved, either at the time when the narrow gorges w^ere cut by 

 the retreating sea, or subsequently b}^ alluvial action. 



Soon after leaving the Blackheath, we descended from the 

 sandstone platform by the pass of Mount Victoria. To effect 

 this pass, an enormous quantity of stone has been cut through ; 

 tlie design, and its manner of execution, being worthy of Jiny 

 line of road in England. We now entered upon a country less 

 elevated by nearly a thousand feet, and consisting of granite. 

 With the change of rock, the vegetation improved ; the trees 

 were both finer and stood farther apart ; and the pasture be- 

 tween them was a little greener and more plentiful. At Hassan's 

 Walls, I left the high road, and made a short detour to a farm 

 called Walerawang ; to the superintendent of which I had a 

 letter of introduction from the owner in Svdnev. Mr. Browne 

 had the kindness to ask me to stay the ensuing day, which I had 

 much pleasure in doing. This place offers an example of one of 

 the large farming, or rather sheep-grazing, establishments of the 

 colony. Cattle and horses are, however, in this case rather more 

 numerous than usual, owing to some of tlie valleys being swampy 

 and producing a coarser pasture. Two or three flat pieces of 

 ground near the house were cleared and cultivated with corn, 

 which the harvest-men were now reaping : but no more wheat is 

 sown than sufficient for the annual support of the labourers em- 

 ployed on the establishment. The usual number of assigned 

 convict-servants here is about forty, but at the present time there 

 were rather more. Although the farm was well stocked with 

 every necessary, there was an apparent absence of comfort ; and 

 not one single woman resided here. The sunset of a fine day 

 will generally cast an air of happy contentment on any scene ; 

 but here, at this retired farm-house, the brightest tints on the 

 surrounding woods could not make me forget that forty har- 



