NEW SOUTH WALES. 



89 



glisten beside the tall black cypress trees, the river shines like a band of steel, 

 and the reflection of the willows and oaks are faintly seen.' 



Penrith looks as a child's toy village ; and Windsor and Richmond, far 

 away, are but indistinct white dots. All quiet, tame, prosperous, and very 



The Valley of the Grose. 



simply beautiful below ; all above 

 and beyond wild and rugged, and, 

 in the commercial sense, unprofit- 

 able. As marvellous a contrast 

 as could be imagined, the begin- 

 ning and the end apparently of 

 new orders, the results of different 

 forces, the work of the earth spent 

 in opposite moods. One must 

 needs marvel in contrasting 

 such scenes, and more pro- _.:^s 

 found becomes the marvel 

 and the wonderment, as with 



every mile a vaster, wilder, grander region is found. Cliff-faces leagues long, 

 and a thousand feet perpendicular ; huge basins, like veritable gulfs in space, 

 where a firmament of blue gathers between the rocky mountain head and 

 the forest growth below, isolated rocks that dwarf all monuments reared in 

 any city of old ; deep calling unto deep in innumerable waterfalls, and 

 through all the summer months frequent thunder, as if the spirits who had 

 wrought their marvels below were still toiling at some other labour in 



