CH. I.] THE WOLLOMBl. 11 



Stringy bark which served for torches, and setting fire to the 

 grass trees {xanthorlicBa) to light raj way. 



This can scarcely he considered a digression from my nar- 

 rative of this day's journey, for Warrawolong was the only 

 object visible, beyond the woody horizon. We had passed 

 No-Grass Valley, the Devil's Backbone, and were ap- 

 proaching Hungry Flat, when Mr. Simpson produced a 

 grilled fowl, and a feed for our horses— and we alighted most 

 willingly for half an hour, to partake of this timely refresh- 

 ment, near a spring. 



On re-mounting, I bade Mr. Simpson farewell, after ex- 

 pressing my satisfaction with his clever arrangements for 

 opening this mountain road, a work which he had accom- 

 plished with small means, in nine months. 



It was quite dark on the evening of the 26th, before I 

 reached the inn near the head of the little valley of the Wol- 

 lombi, a tributary to the river Hunter. Here, at length, we 

 again find some soil fit for cultivation, and the vrhole of it 

 has been taken up in farms. But the pasturage afforded by 

 the numerous vallies on this side of the mountains, here called 

 " cattle runs," is more profitable to the owners of the farms, 

 than the fanns they actually possess, of which the produce by 

 cultivation is only available to them at present, as the means 

 of supporting grazing establishments. I should here observe, 

 that in a climate so dry as that of Australia, the selection of 

 farm land depends solely on the direction of streams, for it 

 is only in the beds of water-courses, that any ponds can be 

 found during dry seasons. The formation of reservoirs has 

 not yet been resorted to, although the accidental largeness of 

 ponds left in such channels has frequently determined settlers 

 in their choice of a homestead, when by a little labour, a pond 

 equally good might have been made in other parts, which 

 few would select from the want of water. In the rocky gul- 

 lies, that I had passed in these mountains, there was, proba- 

 bly, a sufiiciency, but there was no land fit for the purposes 

 of farming. In other situations, on the contraiy, there might 



