3M NEW SOUTH WALLS. [CHAP. xflc. 



January 2Oth. A long day's ride to Bathurst. Before joining the 

 high road we followed a mere path through the forest ; and the country, 

 with the exception of a few squatters' huts, was very solitary. We 

 experienced this day (he sirocco-like wind of Australia, which comes 

 from the parched deserts of the interior. Clouds of dust were travel- 

 ling in every direction ; and the wind felt as if it had passed over a fire. 

 I afterwards heard that the thermometer out of doors had stood at 119, 

 and in a closed room at 96. In the afternoon we came in view of the 

 downs of Bathurst These undulating but nearly smooth plains are 

 very remarkable in this country, from being absolutely destitute of 

 trees. They support only a thin brown pasture. We rode some miles 

 over this country, and then reached the township of Bathurst, seated in 

 the middle of what may be called either a very broad valley, or narrow 

 plain. I was told at Sydney not to form too bad an opinion of Australia 

 by judging of the country from the roadside, nor too good a one from 

 Bathurst ; in this latter respect, I did not feel myself in the least danger 

 of being prejudiced. The season, it must be owned, had been one of 

 great drought, and the country did not wear a favourable aspect; 

 although I understand it was incomparably worse two or three months 

 before. The secret of the rapidly growing prosperity of Bathurst is, 

 that the brown pasture which appears to the stranger's eye so wretched, 

 is excellent for sheep-grazing. The town stands, at the height of 

 2,200 feet above the sea, on the banks of the Macquarie ; this is one of 

 the rivers flowing into the vast and scarcely known interior. The line 

 of watershed, which divides the inland streams from those on the coast, 

 has a height of about 3,000 feet, and runs in a north and south direction 

 at the distance of from eighty to a hundred miles from the seaside. 

 The Macquarie figures in the map as a respectable river, and it is the 

 largest of those draining this part of the water-shed ; yet to my surprise 

 1 found it a mere chain of ponds, separated from each other by spaces 

 almost dry. Generally a small stream is running ; and sometimes there 

 are high and impetuous floods. Scanty as the supply of the water is 

 throughout this district, it becomes still scantier further inland. 



January 22nd. I commenced my return, and followed a new road 

 culled Lockyer's Line, along which the country is rather more hilly and 

 picturesque. This was a long day's ride; and the house where I 

 wished to sleep was some way off the road, and not easily found. I 

 met on this occasion, and indeed on all others, a very general and 

 ready civility among the lower orders, which, when one considers what 

 they are, and what they have been, would scarcely have been expected. 

 The farm where I passed the night, was owned by two young men who 

 had only lately come out, and were beginning a settler's life. The 

 total want of almost every comfort was not very attractive ; but future 

 and certain prosperity was before their eyes, and that not far distant. 



The next day we passed through large tracts of country in flames, 

 volumes of smoke sweeping across the road. Before noon we joined 

 joyed a better fate than the fly, and escaped the fatal jaws which lay con- 

 cealed at the base of the conical hollow. This Australia! pit-fall was only 

 about half the size of that made by the European lion-ant, 



