440 NEW SOUTH WALES. [ CHAP. XIx. 
locked harbours, I have noticed in many parts of South America. 
To apply these ideas to the sandstone platforms of New South 
Wales, I imagine that the strata were heaped by the action of 
strong currents, and of the undulations of an open sea, on an 
irregular bottom; and that the valley-like spaces thus left un- 
filled had their steeply sloping flanks worn into cliffs, during a 
slow elevation of the land; the worn-down sandstone being re- 
moved, either at the time when the narrow gorges were cut by 
the retreating sea, or subsequently by alluvial action. 
Soon after leaving the Blackheath, we descended from the 
sandstone platform by the pass of Mount Victoria. To effect 
this pass, an enormous quantity of stone has been cut through; - 
the design, and its manner of execution, being worthy of any 
line of road in England. We now entered upon a country less 
elevated by nearly a thousand feet, and consisting of granite. 
With the change of rock, the vegetation improved; the trees_ 
were both finer and stood farther apart; and the pasture be- 
tween them was a little greener and more plentiful. At Hassan’s 
Walls, I left the high road, and made a short détour to a farm 
called Walerawang; to the superintendent of which I had a 
letter of introduction from the owner in Sydney. Mr. Browne 
had the kindness to ask me to stay the ensuing day, which I had 
much pleasure in doing. This place offers an example of one of 
the large farming, or rather sheep-grazing, establishments of the 
colony. Cattle and horses are, however, in this case rather more 
numerous than usual, owing to some of the valleys being swampy 
and producing a coarser pasture. Two or three flat pieces of 
grourid near the house were cleared and cultivated with corn, 
which the harvest-men were now reaping: but no more wheat is 
sown than sufficient for the annual support of the labourers em- 
ployed on the establishment. The usual number of assigned 
convict-servants here is about forty, but at the present time there 
were rather more. Although the farm was well stocked with 
every necessary, there was an apparent absence of comfort; and 
not one single woman resided here. The sunset of a fine day 
will generally cast an air of happy contentment on any scene; 
but here, at this retired farm-house, the brightest tints on the 
surzounding woods could not make me forget that forty har- 
