456 CHARLES DARWIN 



seeing more of the town afterwards, perhaps my admiration 

 fell a little ; but yet it is a fine town. The streets are regular, 

 broad, clean, and kept in excellent order ; the houses are of a 

 good size, and the shops well furnished. It may be faithfully 

 compared to the large suburbs which stretch out from London 

 and a few other great towns in England ; but not even near 

 London or Birmingham is there an appearance of such rapid 

 growth. The number of large houses and other buildings just 

 finished was truly surprising; nevertheless, every one com- 

 plained of the high rents and difficulty in procuring a house. 

 Coming from South America, where in the towns every man 

 of property is known, no one thing surprised me more than 

 not being able to ascertain at once to whom this or that car- 

 riage belonged. 



I hired a man and two horses to take me to Bathurst, a 

 village about one hundred and twenty miles in the interior, 

 and the centre of a great pastoral district. By this means I 

 hoped to gain a general idea of the appearance of the country. 

 On the morning of the i6th (January) I set out on my excur- 

 sion. The first stage took us to Paramatta, a small country 

 town, next to Sydney in importance. The roads were excel- 

 lent, and made upon the MacAdam principle, whinstone hav- 

 ing been brought for the purpose from the distance of several 

 miles. In all respects there was a close resemblance to Eng- 

 land: perhaps the alehouses here were more numerous. The 

 iron gangs, or parties of convicts who have committed here 

 some offense, appeared the least like England: they were 

 working in chains, under the charge of sentries with loaded 

 arms. 



The power which the government possesses, by means 

 of forced labour, of at once opening good roads throughout 

 the country, has been, I believe, one main cause of the early 

 prosperity of this colony. I slept at night at a very com- 

 fortable inn at Emu ferry, thirty-five miles from Sydney, 

 and near the ascent of the Blue Mountains. This line of 

 road is the most frequented, and has been the longest in- 

 habited of any in the colony. The whole land is enclosed 

 with high railings, for the farmers have not succeeded in 

 rearing hedges. There are many substantial houses and good 

 cottages scattered about ; but although considerable pieces of 



