TOPOGRAPHY OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 



121 



THE SEAL ROCK LIGHT-HOUSE. 



prominent object with its red 

 and white stripes, some ninety 

 feet above the water ; round- 

 ing this, the voyager may see unfolding be- 

 fore his eyes the famous Harbour of Port 

 Jackson, the gate of Sydney, the great com- 

 mercial centre of the South Pacific. 



Sailing out again under the vertical cliffs 

 of the North Head, and keeping northwards 

 past alternate rocks and sandy beaches for 

 sixteen miles, we round the high cone of 

 Barrenjoey Head, where an entrance two 

 miles wide leads into Broken Bay, the estuary of the 

 picturesque Hawkesbury River, discovered by Governor 

 Phillip in 1789, during one of his excursions in search 

 of better land for cultivation than that found on the 

 shores of Port Jackson. The Hawkesbury branches out 

 into long arms of deep water, lying very dark and still, 

 like small fiords, overshadowed by cliffs that rise often 

 to five and six hundred feet in height. But there is 

 wonderful variety in this beautiful inlet, the shores being 



sometimes beaches of a deep-red or reddish-brown colour, which look very bright when set 

 off by the dark-green foliage of the background. There are not many places in the 



