460 New South Wales. 



and a half, and ran upwards of four miles per hour. The 

 country all around was an undulating level, abounding in very 

 superior timber, the soil rich, and well covered with grass, but 

 rather stony. The river came from the south-west in the di- 

 rection of the Macquarie marshes, of which it may probably 

 prove the outlet, being at the termination of Mr. Oxley's sur- 

 vey about three hundred and fifty miles in a direct line from 

 where he lost the Macquarie river among reeds in his former 

 trip into the interior. The country around was not subject to 

 flood, no marks of it being seen higher than seven feet above 

 the then level of the river, which was considerably within the 

 banks. It contained abundance of fish, and several parrots 

 were shot in the vicinity, of the same species as have hitherto 

 only been found near the banks of the Macquarie. A river of 

 tolerable magnitude called the Tweed, was also discovered be- 

 hind Mount Warning, a little to the southward of the last, 

 with a fine bar harbour of 14 feet, and the country seemingly 

 good around. A smaller one, called the Boyne, was also 

 fcund in Port Curteis. The governor intended proceeding 

 to survey the Brisbane in April, in His Majesty's ship Tees 

 lately arrived from India. Mr. Oxley's health having been 

 materially injured by his two former hazardous expeditions, 

 the hardships encountered in this last had given it a still se- 

 verer shock; but he had nearly recovered at the period of the 

 Competitor's departure, and was anxious to set out on a fur- 

 ther journey of discovery for the benefit of science, and the 

 colony to which his patriotic and meritorious exertions have 

 already been so serviceable. 



Mr. Archibald Bell, junior, of Richmond- hill, had also dis- 

 covered a new route over the Blue Mountains, to Bathurst, by 

 way of Richmond, which passes through a fertile, well-watered 

 brushy country ; and besides considerably reducing the di- 

 stance, the road will be comparatively level, and free from 

 nearly all the obstacles which render the bleak and barren one 

 now used, so uninviting to the traveller and ill adapted for the 

 passage of carriages and cattle. The veteran corps, lately dis- 

 banded, is to be settled along this line. 



A stage-coach has recently commenced running daily be- 

 tween Sydney and Parramatta, and a second caravan was pre- 

 paring to run between Sydney and Parramatta daily ; a third 

 between Parramatta and Liverpool ; and a stage-coach between 

 Parramatta and Windsor ; so that now travellers may proceed 

 by daily stages to ell the well settled parts of the colony. The 

 five hives of bees taken out by Captain Wallace of the Isabella, 

 were thriving well, and had thrown off many swarms, the greater 

 part of which had escaped into the woods, where they will 



multiply 



