320 NEW SOUTH WALES. CHAP. xix, 



bours, which are generally connected with the sea by a narrow mouth 

 worn through the sandstone coast-cliffs, varying from one mile in width 

 to a quarter of a mile, present a likeness, though on a miniature scale, 

 to the great valleys of the interior. But then immediately occurs 

 the startling difficulty, why has the sea worn out these great, though 

 circumscribed depressions on a wide platform, and left mere gorges 

 at the openings, through which the whole vast amount of triturated 

 matter must have been carried away? The only light I can throw 

 upon this enigma, is by remarking that banks of the most irregular 

 forms appear to be now forming in some seas, as in parts of the West 

 Indies and in the Red Sea, and that their sides are exceedingly steep. 

 Such banks, I have been led to suppose, have been formed by sediment 

 heaped by strong currents on an irregular bottom. That in some cases 

 the sea, instead of spreading out sediment in a uniform sheet, heaps it 

 round submarine rocks and islands, it is hardly possible to doubt, 

 after examining the charts of the West Indies; and that the waves 

 have power to form high and precipitous cliffs, even in land-locked 

 harbours, I have noticed in many parts of South America. To apply 

 these ideas to the sandstone platforms of New South Wales, I imagine 

 that the strata were heaped by the action of strong currents, and of the 

 undulations of an open sea, on an irregular bottom ; and that the valley- 

 like spaces thus left unfilled have their steeply sloping flanks worn into 

 cliffs, during a slow elevation of the land ; the worn-down sandstone 

 being removed, either at the time when the narrow gorges were cut by 

 the retreating sea, or subsequently by alluvial action. 



Soon after leaving the Blackheath, we descended from the sandstone 

 platform by the pass of Mount Victoria. To effect this pass, an 

 enormous quantity of stone has been cut through ; the design, and its 

 manner of execution, being worthy of any line of road in England. 

 We now entered upon a country less elevated by nearly a thousand 

 feet, and consisting of granite. With the change of rock, the vegetation 

 improved ; the trees were both finer and stood farther apart ; and the 

 pasture between them was a little greener and more plentiful. At 

 Hassan's Walls, I left the high road, and made a short detour to a 

 farm called Walerawang, to the superintendent of which I had a letter 

 of introduction from the owner in Sydney. Mr. Browne had the kind- 

 ness to ask me to stay the ensuing day, which I had much pleasure in 

 doing. This place offers an example of one of the large farming, or 

 rather sheep-grazing, establishments of the colony. Cattle and horses 

 are, however, in this case rather more numerous than usual, owing to 

 some of the valleys being swampy and producing a coarser pasture. 

 Two or three flat pieces of ground near the house were cleared and 

 cultivated with corn, which the harvest-men were now reaping : but no 

 more wheat is sown than sufficient for the annual support of the labourers 

 employed on the establishment. The usual number of assigned 

 convict-servants here is about forty, but at the present time there wert 

 rather more. Although the farm was well stocked with every necessary, 

 there was an apparent absence of comfort ; and not one single woman 



