162 CHARLEY BOOTH. [CH. I. 



from Sydney on the other. The country beyond the Mac- 

 quarie affords excellent sheep-pasturage, the hills consisting 

 chiefly of granite. A number of respectable colonists are 

 domiciled on the surrounding plains, and the society of their 

 hospitable circle, presents a very pleasing picture of pastoral 

 happiness and independence. 



Aj)ril 4. — It was not until two o'clock that I could conclude 

 my correspondence with the road-making, land -measuring- 

 world, and join a very agreeable party, assembled by my 

 friend Rankin, to partake of an early dinner and witness my 

 departure. 



Mr. Rankin accompanied me in my ride that afternoon, 

 and we reached at a late hour the house of Charley Booth, 

 distant about 25 miles from Bathurst. Some years had 

 elapsed, since I first passed a night, at Charley's hut or 

 cattle station, then a resting-place for whoever might occa- 

 sionally pass ; and inhabited by grim-looking stockmen, of 

 whom Charley, as my friend called him, seemed one. Now, 

 the march of improvement had told wonderfully on the 

 place. The hut was converted into a housey in which the 

 curtained neatness and good arrangement were remark- 

 able for such an out-station. Mr. Booth himself looked 

 younger by some years, and we at length discovered the 

 source of the increased comforts of his home, in a wife, whom 

 he had wisely selected from among the recently arrived 



emigrants. 



April 5. — Here I at length took leave of my friend, to 

 pursue a long and dreary ride along the track which led to 

 Buree. The wood consisted chiefly of those kinds of eu- 

 calyptus, termed box and apple-tree — forming a very open 

 kind of forest, the hollows being in general quite clear of 

 trees. The farther I proceeded westward, the more the 

 country exhibited the withering effects of long drought. 



The mountain mass of the Canobolas, lay to the southward 

 of my route ; and on crossing the lofty range which here 

 divides the counties of Bathurst and Wellington, the summit 



