LATE ALLAN CUNNINGHAM, ESQ. 279 



liis tent in the valley immediately below tiie Pass, was 3F 43' 

 45" S., and longitude by estimation 149<^ 30' E. Under a 

 tree in the valley was deposited a memorandum written on 

 parchment, and enclosed in a bottle: the following is a copy 

 of the document. 



" Memorandum. 



*'After a very laborious and harassing journey from Bathurst, 

 since April last, a party consisting of five persons, under the 

 direction of Allan Cunningham, H. M. Botanist (making 

 the sixth individual), having failed of finding a route to 

 Liverpool plains, whilst tracing the south base of the barrier 

 mountains (before us north), so far as fifty miles to the east- 

 ward of this spot, at length upon prosecuting their research 

 under this great mountain-belt in a westerly direction, 

 reached this valley, and discovered a practicable and easy 

 passage through a low part of the mountain-belt, north by 

 west from this tree, to the very extensive levels connected 

 with the above-mentioned plains, of which the southernmost 

 of the chain is distant about eleven or twelve miles (by esti- 

 mation), N.N.W., from this valley, and to which a line of 

 trees has been carefully marked; thus opening an unlim- 

 ited, unbounded, seemingly well-watered country N.N.W., 

 to call forth the exertions of the industrious agriculturist 

 and grazier, for whose benefit the present labours of the party 

 have been extended. This valley, which extends to the 

 S.W. and W.S.W., has been named ' Hawksbury Vale,' 

 and the high point of the range, bearing N.W. by W. from 

 this tree, was called ' Mount Jenkinson ;' the one a former 

 title, and the other the family name of the noble earl whose 

 present title the plains bear, to which from the southern 

 country this gap affords the only passage likely to be discov- 

 ered. The party in the earlier and middle stages of their ex- 

 pedition encountered many privations and local difficulties, 

 of travelling to, and in their return from, the eastward ; in 

 spite however of these little evils, ' a Hope at the bottom,' or 

 at this almost close of their journey, an encouragement in- 

 duced them to persevere westerly a limited distance, and 



