i TT ET II E EEGENEN 
LATE ALLAN CUNNINGHAM, ESQ. 109 
through which to admit of a road being made to the interior 
beyond them. My pass, therefore, through these lofty 
mountains, the mean elevation of which, above the shores of 
Moreton Bay, cannot be less than 4,000 feet, seems thus the 
only opening to the interior country from the coast between 
the parallels of 269 and 29? South.* 
r. Cunningham now bade farewell to his friends on the 
Brisbane, and embarked himself and collections, on board 
the Isabella, government schooner, on the 29th of October, 
and on the evening of the 4th of November, anchored in 
Sydney Cove. The botanical collections of this expedition 
were of a very interesting and valuable character, living plants 
having been procured of Araucaria Cunninghamii, Flindersia 
australis, Oxleya xanthoxyla, Gyrostemon attenuatum, Casta- 
nospermum australe, Cupania xylocarpa, Bignonia jasmin- 
oides, Cargillia arborea, Capparis cydoniodora and that mag- 
nificent specimen of Proteacee, Grevillia robusta, also several 
species of Orchidee, and that giant fern Arcrostichum grande 
A. Cunn. (A. fuciforme, Wall.); these, with an equally valuable 
collection of seeds and specimens, were the fruits of this inte- 
resting journey. 
In the month of January, 1829, a journey was undertaken 
over the Blue Mountains, towards Bathurst, in search of 
seeds, generally found ripe at this season of the year; how- 
ever, on the present occasion, Mr. Cunningham was sorely 
disappointed, from the excessively dry season that had just 
gone by, the effects of which he thus graphically describes : 
" On passing Springwood, a military post, situate twelve 
miles on the eastern ascent of the mountains, we were much 
struck with the blighted aspect of vegetation, in corfsequence 
of the long-continued drought of the year, and the excessive 
solar heats that have been very generally experienced through- 
out the colony, more particularly during the last two months. 
This sad, sombre scene we carried on with us the greater 
* Vide, the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, 
vol. ii, p. 99, 
