1836.] A DUSTY RIDE. 435 



and beak when fresh ; the latter becoming hard and 

 contracted.* 



January 20th. — 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 the sirocco-like wind of Australia, which comes from 

 the parched deserts of the interior. Clouds of dust were 

 travelling 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. 1 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 pro- 

 sperity 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 

 2200 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 3000 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 



* I wa« interested bry finding here the hollow conical oitfall ot the lion-ant. 

 or some other insect : nrnt a fly fell down the treacherous slope and immediately 

 disappeared ; then came a large but unwary ant ; its strufj^gies to escape being 

 ven* violent, those curious little jets of sand, described by Kirby and Spcnce 

 ("Kntomol.," vol i. p. 435) as being flirted by the insect's tail, were promptly 

 directed against the expected victim. Hut the ant enjoyed a }>ettcr fate than 

 the fly, and escaped ttie fatal jaws which lay concealed at the ba«e of the 

 conical hollow. This Australian pit-fall was only about half the size of that 

 made by the European lion-ant. 



