,/ ( :v TR. I /.. /.SY. / ILL USTRA TED. 



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ut of the metropolis. The commercial buildings, however, make no particular display; 

 l.anks. insurant ..(tiers and stores are commodious and sufficient, but not imposing. 

 Manufactures have not si-cured much footing in the town, though a few tall chimneys 

 indicate Hour-mills, brruvrirs and agricultural implement works. A mile up the Macquarie 

 is tin- pumping-i-nginr which supplies water to the town. 



The railway from Bathurst goes westward in the direction of Blayney. For the first 

 few miles it follows the direction of a pleasant road beside the water-course of George's 

 Yak-, the creek winding in long curves fringed with willows. On either side are clover- 

 paddocks and corn-fields, orchards and gardens; homesteads of all sorts from the substan- 

 tial house of the wealthy settler to the mud-walled cabin of the humble tenant who 

 rents a little patch of rich alluvial land. After continuing thus for eight miles the line 

 i-nu-rs rougher country which does not invite to agriculture, and which even in a good 

 year is only scantily clothed with short wiry grass. The hills are sparsely timbered and 

 strewn with boulders. The township of Blayney is built chiefly on a flat by the side 

 of the Belubula River. It is a moderately prosperous place, because at no great 

 distance there is some fine agricultural land. At Blayney there is also a railway junc- 

 tion, the main line going off to the north-west ; but towards the south-west there is a 

 cross-country line connecting the Western and Southern Railways. This branch line runs 

 through Carcoar, Cowra and Young to Murrumburrah, and affords a direct route from 

 the colony of Yictoria to the western slopes of New South Wales, and thence on to 

 Bourke. It is likely to become a great route for the transmission of live stock from 

 Queensland to the Melbourne market. The first considerable township on this line is 

 Carcoar, the centre of a mining district, situated in a deep mountain valley ; some en- 

 gineering difficulties had to be encountered to make the descent. The next important 

 place is Cowra, in the valley of the Lachlan. Prior to the advent of the iron-horse it 

 was little more than a halting-place for carriers and drovers, but the railway makes a 

 speedy change where the land is fertile. Selections are taken up, farms are tilled, the 

 old camping-place becomes a village, and in a few years the village grows to a town. 



Westward of Cowra lies Grenfell, once a prosperous alluvial gold-field, where shafts and 

 batteries still make a busy show, though the maize and wheat-fields and the rich red soil 

 of the newly-cleared land indicate that the larger hope of the future lies in agriculture. 



Twenty miles beyond Blayney along the railway line is Orange. The route trends 

 over elevated ground, the line at one part being over three thousand feet above the 

 level of the sea. Clearings and paddocks are to be seen all along the line, and at 

 some intervening villages, such as Millthorpe and Springhill, large areas of land have 

 been brought under tillage. Near the town the country is more open, and the rich red 

 volcanic soil is well adapted for every description of agriculture. Orange lies among 

 grassy hills, over which tower the Canoblas, capped through several months of the year 

 with snow. There is no river near, but there is an abundant rain-fall, and water is seldom 

 scarce. The district is commonly said to have the most "English" appearance of any in 

 the colony, the farms and the vegetation reminding one of English rural scenes. The range 

 of temperature is that of our mountain climate generally hot in the middle of the day in 

 summer, but cool in the evening, and very cold and bracing in winter. In the gardens 

 and fields the influence of the cooler climate is very noticeable. The daphnes, magnolias 



