NEW SOUTH WALES. 177 



On proceeding inwards from the coast, the country at a distance 

 seems to be traversed by ridges, but on approaching their apparent 

 position, they melt away into rounded elevations, of very gradual 

 inclination. Still farther to the westward, the undulating region is 

 bounded by inaccessible declivities and lofty mural precipices. 

 These are the edges of the Bhie Mountains, which are seen from 

 Sydney, skirting the horizon like low hills, which have so little 

 appearance of elevation that it at first seems to be difficult to conjec- 

 ture how they came to be called mountains, when seen only from the 

 coast. This ridge runs north and south, and rises at some points to 

 the height of three thousand five hundred feet. 



It is not many years since this ridge was considered as inacces- 

 sible, and the deep gorges which intersect its sandstone rocks as 

 impassable ; its peaks rise in many places abruptly, and present such 

 difficulties, as to have deterred travellers from attempting to scale 

 their summits, or from seeking a passage through the ravines, which 

 in the season of rains are swept by impetuous torrents. 



The same description will apply to the mountains which bound 

 the Illawarra district to the west, where sandstone also occurs, 

 broken into precipitous heights, and deep gorges. At the Kangaroo 

 Pass, the Illawarra Mountain is nearly two thousand feet high; its 

 rapid acclivity is covered with a dense vegetation, until within three 

 hundred feet of the summit ; whence upwards a perpendicular face 

 of rock is exposed. The path through this pass winds among the 

 narrow breaks of the rock, and is toilsome to both beast and rider. 



In one of the gorges which open upon this pass is a beautiful 

 waterfall. The deep narrow glen opens abruptly upon the passenger, 

 and exhibits its bare rocks, and the tiny stream is seen leaping from 

 one projection of the rocky shelves to another, which break its head- 

 long course, until, lost in spray, it reaches the bottom, where its waters 

 collect, at the depth of two hundred and fifty feet below its upper 

 edge, in a limpid pool. This gorge opens to the westward, and looks 

 out upon a mountain range. 



Seven miles further, a descent by a similar path leads into the 

 Kangaroo Valley. This valley is nearly twenty miles in length, and 

 has an average breadth of about three miles ; it is surrounded on all 

 sides by vertical precipices, from one thousand to one thousand eight 

 hundred feet in height. 



In consequence of the aridity which has been mentioned as a 

 character of the soil about Sydney, and which is also a prevailing 



vol. 11. 45 



