TOPOGRAPHY OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 135 



water-dividing grounds of the colony. Sometimes high, bold, and wild a serrated or 

 razor-backed divide ; at others a broad plateau, affording in semi-tropical latitudes the 

 conditions of the temperate zone ; rugged and desolate over many miles, showing only 

 the barren sandstone, and that poorly fertilized by the decay of its own meagre vegeta- 

 tion, with here and there large fertile patches of the decomposed trap-rock which mark 

 the old volcanic overflows. 



The continuity of the table-land of New South Wales is broken by the Hunter 

 River, which geographically divides it into a northern and a southern portion. The 

 northern stretches from the Liverpool Range to the border, and far into Queensland. 

 Its eastern edge is a mountain chain, and it approaches the coast to within thirty-five 

 miles, reaching in some places a height of three thousand six hundred feet above the 

 sea-level ; its average elevation, however, does not exceed two thousand five hundred feet. 

 Its declivity thence to the sea is steep and rugged, but it slopes gradually to the west. 

 The corresponding southern table-land begins with the mountains skirting the head of the 

 Goulburn, and extends in a southerly direction into the colony of Victoria. It is remark- 

 ably similar to the northern plateau, though its elevation is somewhat less, not exceeding 

 an average of two thousand two hundred feet. West of these elevated portions of the 

 colony stretch the great plains of the interior, with a slope so insignificant as to 

 be insufficient for carrying off the water deposited on their surface by the heavy rains, 

 and these vast tracts of level land constitute nearly half of the entire colony. 



The coast-ranges occupy an intermediate position between the great cordillera and 

 the Pacific Ocean, and are generally minor ranges running parallel to the tables of the 

 Divide. Mount Seaview is the only peak of these attaining a remarkable altitude, rising 

 six thousand feet, giving birth to the Hastings River, and looking right out to the 

 Pacific across sixty miles of varied country. Other prominent mountains of these coast- 

 ranges are Mount Coolungubbera, over three thousand seven hundred feet high, and 

 Mount Budawang, three thousand eight hundred feet, which are noted peaks of the 

 southern portion of this mountainous parallel to the Great Divide. Besides these coast- 

 spurs a number of isolated peaks stucl the coast-line and the plains of the inland 

 country. Some of the most conspicuous of these points have been already described in 

 the chapter on the coast scenery of New South Wales, and although mountains of this 

 character occur in several parts of the colony, they do not materially affect its geo- 

 graphical features. 



In the far west there is no continuous mountain range, but there are groups 

 remarkable if only by reason of their isolation. Such are the Grey and Stanley or 

 Barrier Ranges, which attain in some of their peaks a height of two thousand feet, 

 terrible memorials of hideous droughts, bearing nothing but scrub and ^pinifex, and 

 inhabited only by wild dogs and a few carrion birds. A rare wet season may bring 

 them' a temporary coat of green, and start salt and cotton bush about their slopes to 

 produce crops of drought-withstanding food. And in their valleys a few adventurous 

 diggers may be busy ; but these sultry dales are only the skirts or outposts of the great 

 inner land of wildness, vastness, and awe-inspiring solitude. Between these western hills 

 and the foot of the cordillera lies that great plain-country of the colony through the 

 heart of which the Darling winds its tortuous way. There are no hills scarcely undula- 



