230 NEW SOUTH wales. 



The season, it must be owned, had been one of 

 great drought, and the country did not wear a fa- 

 vourable aspect, although I understand it was in- 

 comparably worse two or three months before. 

 The secx'et of the rapidly-growing prosperity of 

 Bathurst is, that the brown pasture, which apjiears 

 to the stranger's eye so wretched, is excellent for 

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

 2200 feet above the sea, on the banks of the Mac- 

 quarie : this is one of the rivers flowing into the 

 vast and scarcely-known interior. The line of wa- 

 ter-shed, which divides the inland sti'eams from 

 those on the coast, has a height of about 3000 feet, 

 and runs in a north and south direction at the dis- 

 tance of from eighty to a hundred miles from the 

 sea-side. 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, I found it a mere chain of ponds, separa- 

 ted from each other by spaces almost dry. Gen- 

 erally 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. 



22d. — I commenced my return, and followed a 

 new road called Lockyer's Line, along which the 

 counti-y is rather more hilly and picturesque. This 

 was a long day's ride, and the house where I wish- 

 ed to sleep was some way oft' 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 consid- 

 ers what they are and what they have been, would 

 scarcely have been expected. The farm where I 

 passed the night was OAvned by two young men 

 who had only lately coiue out, and were beginning 

 a settler's life. The total want of almost everv 



