438 NEW SOUTH WALES. [cHar, XIX. 
Blackheath is a very comfortable inn, kept by an old soldier; 
and it reminded me of the small inns in North Wales. 
18th.—Very early in the morning, I walked about three miles 
to see Govett’s Leap: a view of a similar character with that 
near the Weatherboard, but perhaps even more stupendous. So 
early in the day the gulf was filled with a thin blue haze, which, 
although destroying the general effect of the view, added to the 
apparent depth at which the forest was stretched out beneath our 
feet. ‘These valleys, which so Jong presented an insuperable 
barrier to the attempts of the most enterprising of the colonists 
to reach the interior, are most remarkable. Great arm-like 
bays, expanding at their upper ends, often branch from the main 
valleys and penetrate the sandstone platform ; on the other hand, 
the platform often sends promontories into the valleys, and even 
leaves in them great, almost insulated, masses. To descend into 
some of these valleys, it is necessary to go round twenty miles ; 
and into others, the surveyors have only lately penetrated, and 
the colonists have not yet been able to drive in their cattle. But 
the most remarkable feature in their structure is, that although 
several miles wide at their heads, they generally contract towards 
their mouths to such a degree as to become impassable. The 
Surveyor-General, Sir T. Mitchell,* endeavoured in vain, first 
walking and then by crawling between the great fallen fragments 
of sandstone, to ascend through the gorge by which the river 
Grose joins the Nepean; yet the valley of the Grose in its 
upper part, as I saw, forms a magnificent level basin some miles 
in width, and is on all sides surrounded by cliffs, the summits of 
which are believed to be nowhere less than 3000 feet above the 
level of the sea. When cattle are driven into the valley of the 
Wolgan by a path (which I descended), partly natural and partly 
made by the owner of the land, they cannot escape; for this 
valley is in every other part surrounded by perpendicular cliffs, 
and eight miles lower down, it contracts from an average width 
of half a mile, to a mere chasm, impassable to man or beast. 
Sir T. Mitchell states that the great valley of the Cox river with 
all its branches, contracts, where it unites with the Nepean, into 
* Travels in Australia, vol. i, p. 154. I must expross my obligation to 
Sir T. Mitehell, “for several interesting personal communications, on the 
subject of these great valleys of New South Wales, 
