158 M. Lesson on the Natural Histoi^y of the 



crossed the Nepean at Emeu-ford, and ascended the first plain 

 of the Blue Mountains with ease. They then got embarrassed 

 among numerous detours, and were on the point of renouncing 

 their project. But at length their obstinate perseverance was 

 crowned with success, and after having descended York Moun- 

 tain, they discovered a rich and fertile country, and returned to 

 Fort- Jackson, to announce this important discovery. 



I have always been astonished at the difficulties which those who 

 first attempted to cross these mountains have said they had under- 

 gone ; for their height, at the highest summit, is not more than 

 about 2500 feet, and the two ranges which they form are con- 

 nected by undulations of no great importance, and could scarcely 

 present any obstacle at York Mountain for descending into 

 Clyde Valley. We must suppose that all those who tried the 

 enterprise in the earlier times of the colony, had coasted the 

 rugged and steep sides of the Prince Regenfs Glen, which is a 

 deep valley, the vertical walls of which must naturally have pre- 

 sented insurmountable obstacles, although at a short distance it 

 was easy to pass over the sloping declivities which connect the 

 various divisions of the first range of the Blue Mountains. 



Having provided ourselves with a cart and guides, M. Dur- 

 ville and I set out on the 29th January 1824. I shall not de- 

 scribe Sydney, Paramatta, or the farm of Emeu Plains, which 

 is boimded by the Nepean, and now abundantly covered by the 

 cereal productions of Europe. This rich and beautiful plain is 

 situated at the foot of the Blue Mountains, twenty miles dis- 

 tant from Sydney Cove. The rock is uniformly ferruginous sand- 

 stone, excepting the Prospect Hill, where the curious phenome- 

 non is observed of a high eminence, consisting entirely of dole- 

 rite^ the foot of which is enveloped in sandstone, which is every- 

 where uniformly of the same nature. In the fresh and running- 

 waters of the Nepean, I found a very small Cyclas^ together 

 with a species of Unio. A small Teal, allied to, or perhaps even 

 identical with, the Soiicronette, lives in flocks upon this river, 

 which is no longer inhabited by the Ornithorynchi, or at least in 

 such small number, that it is very rare to have any in this loca- 

 lity. ' To supply this want, however, the yellow-crested Cockatoos, 

 (Psittacus cristatus of Latham), made the wood resound with 



