624 NOTES ON THE NATIVE FLORA OF N. S. WALES, ix., 



bungles, and which has an elevation of over 4,000 feet : — "To 

 the north-east, commencing at N.33°E., and extending to N.5rE., 

 a lofty and magnificent range of hills was seen lifting their blue 

 heads above the horizon. This range was honoured with the 

 name of the Earl of Hard wick e, and was distant on a medium 

 from one hundred to one hundred and twenty miles : its highest 

 elevations were named respectively Mount Apsley and Mount 

 Shirley."* Accompanying Oxley, on this expedition, was Charles 

 Eraser, Colonial Botanist, who collected many new species of 

 plants. Oxley passed to the south of Hardwicke's Range, now 

 known as the Nandewar Mountains, and on 2nd September, 1818, 

 discovered and " named Peel's River, in honour of the Right 

 Hon. Robert Peel,"(p.248), and which he crossed near Gidley, to 

 the north-west of Tamworth. The native name of the river is 

 Callala. 



Allan Cunningham. — The second botanist to visit the vicinity 

 of the Nandewar Mountains, was Allan Cunningham, who passed 

 northwards near Bariaba and Bingara in May, 1827, when on 

 his journey from the Upper Hunter to Queensland, which resulted 

 in his discovery of the Darling Downs. On returning in the 

 following July, he crossed the Gwydir River some 1 miles below 

 its junction with Horton's River, discovering and naming both 

 rivers during this expedition, the former in honour of the Right 

 Hon. Lord Gwydir, and the latter in honour of R. J. Wilmot 

 Horton, MP., Under Secretary of State for the Colonies. In 

 continuing his journey southwards, partly up Horton's River, 

 Cunningham passed over the Nandewar Range and over the 

 eastern spurs of the Nandewar Mountains, which latter he 

 referred to as Hardwicke's Range, and spoke of the elevations as 

 "curiously formed cubical and chimney-shaped summits."! 



Surveyor-General Sir Thomas L. Mitchell. — The third explorer 

 to visit the neighbourhood of the Nandewar Mountains, was Sir 



* Oxley 's Expedition, p.261. According to Oxley's map, the northern 

 elevation was named Apsley, and the southern, Shirley, and they were 

 about 17 miles apart. 



t Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, London, Vol. ii. , p. 115, 

 with map. 



