294 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 



all further progress to the westward, northward, or nortli- 

 eastward was impracticable — from the low flat country being 

 under water — he halted for a couple of days to rest his pack- 

 horses, and take the necessary bearings from this his furthest 

 point of progress northward. On the I8ih of May he com- 

 menced his return journey, and arrived safely at Bathurst on 

 the 7th of June, where he rested a week, and reached Para- 

 matta on the 17th, having completed a circuitous tour of 

 seven hundred miles. 



The general features and character of Liverpool Plains is 

 thus described by Mr Cunningham : — 



" Liverpool Plains, which were discovered by Mr Oxley, 

 in 18] 8, who entered them on the north-west side on his 

 emerging from the great internal marshes, are vast levels 

 comprehended between the meridian of 150° and 150^ 50' 

 East, and within the pai-allels of 3P 35' and SQ^ 45' South. 

 They are disposed in elongated strips, which vary in breadth 

 from five to fifteen miles, for the most part clear of timber, 

 with the exception of a few straggling trees of Acacia pendula 

 and a Eucalyptus, which are scattered singly at long distances 

 on the general surface. One uninterrupted tract of level plain, 

 stretching from S. to N., being found by actual odometrical 

 admeasurement to exceed fifty miles, whilst another portion, 

 crossing it from W.N.W. to E.S.E., and extending to the very 

 foot of the grand southern dividing range, formed a base of not 

 less than sixty, and perhaps seventy miles. From these two 

 principal branches, lateral ramifications stretch tliemselves 

 N. and S., of which Camden and Barrow's valleys are of the 

 former direction, and the rising grounds which are remarked 

 to intercept the plane surface of this region, being by these 

 minor branches perfectly isolated, form detached elevations of 

 various figures and picturesque appearance on the general 

 surface, whose entire area, included within the above-mention- 

 ed meridional and parallel lines, may comprehend a space of 

 1,500,000 acres, of which four-fifths may be considered in 

 seasons not decidedly wet, available for all the purposes of agri- 

 culture, and more especially cattle-grazing, and many fine dry 



