84 NEW ENGLAND (n.S.W.) ETC. 



tion on the road, it was at last drawn to its destination by a 

 ■double team consisting of eight and twenty strong working 

 bullocks. In 18o9 I had occasion to visit Clerkness, and there 

 I discovered the Megaethou peacefully cutting timber like any 

 ordinary sawmill. After all, then, the bullock dray maintained its 

 position, and several years went by before draught horses began to 

 replace the bullocks. Indeed, anyone who knew much of the roads 

 which were then in use quite understood the reason of this. 



In 1858 our managing partner decided to send a flock of 

 about a thousand fat sheep to Sydney. Boy as I was at the time, 

 and inexperienced withal — I had left school only a few months before 

 — I was to take charge of them and to have two men to assist 

 me. One of these was called the shepherd, the other cook and 

 watchman. None of us knew these men ; but labour was scarce 

 in those days, and men were worth money. We could not raise 

 a dog amongst us. None of us, I fancy, knew anything of the 

 road we were to travel. Some time in March we got away from 

 the station. The manager accompanied us that day, and cainped 

 with us at night. On the following day he went with us until 

 we had passed Walcha. I do not know that he had ever 

 travelled with sheep, but during this day and a-half he had been 

 instructing me in the art ; then he left us and returned home. 

 Mr. Wilson's Aberbaldie station was the first we passed, Mclvor's 

 Inglebar the next. Thence we proceeded by this short-cut of 

 which we knew nothing ; but we were making for the Hanging 

 Rock diggings, and we were then to go on by a track ever Crawney 

 Mountain, to descend onto the Isis River, and follow it down until 

 we reached the town of Aberdeen, on the Hunter. We did not follow 

 the highroad down the Hunter, but diverged to the right passing 

 through Patrick's Plains, then made across to Cobcroft's and 

 Parnell's stations, took the stock route across the Bulgar 

 Mountain, crossed the Colo River, and over more barren 

 mountains until we reached the Hawkesbury, at a point nearly 

 opposit.e Windsor. 



Soon after we passed Inglebar, the road, such as it was, led 

 us into a dense stringy-bark forest. I had never seen such a 

 quantity of magnificent timber trees. In the rich volcanic 

 soil, constantly moistened by abundant showers in the summer 

 and by sleet and snow in the winter, they thrived amazingly, 

 and being closely packed together they grew to an immense 

 height. Between the butts of the trees there was a tangled 

 mass of undergrowth, and numbers of the fallen giants of the 



