180 NEW SOUTH WALES. 



extent spread over the country, and form the district of New Eng- 

 land, which affords fine pasturage. These plains lie at an altitude of 

 between two thousand and three thousand feet, and from that circum- 

 stance enjoy a much cooler climate than Sydney, although five 

 degrees nearer the equator. 



The most remarkable part of New South Wales is the district of 

 Illawarra, situated on the coast, about sixty miles to the south of Port 

 Jackson. This is a narrow strip, that seems to be formed by the 

 retreat of the sandstone cliffs from the sea, to a distance which varies 

 from one to ten miles. The cliffs or mountains vary in height from 

 one thousand to two thousand feet. This region is extremely fruitful ; 

 its forests are rich with a great variety of foliage, and of creeping 

 plants which twine around the trees. The great size and number of 

 the trees served to remind the gentlemen who visited it, of the vege- 

 tation of the tropical islands, luxuriant with tree-ferns, bananas, 

 banyans, &c. This luxuriance is in part owing to a rich and light 

 soil, composed of decomposed basalt and argillaceous sandstone, 

 mixed with vegetable mould, but more to the peculiarity of its cli- 

 mate. The high cliffs which bound it to the west, keep off the 

 scorching winds which reach other parts of the coast from that 

 quarter, and the moisture of the sea-breeze intercepted by them, is 

 condensed, falling in gentle showers. For this reason, it is not sub- 

 ject to the long and frequent droughts that occur in other parts of 

 New South Wales. 



These droughts are sometimes of such long- continuance, that we at 

 one time read of the whole country having been burnt up for want 

 of rain, a famine threatened, and the sheep and cattle perishing in 

 immense numbers. 



These have been succeeded by long-continued rains, which have 

 raised the rivers thirty or forty feet, flooded the whole country, 

 deluged the towns and villages, and completely destroyed the crops. 

 Such floods carry with them houses, barns, stacks of grain, &c, 

 drown the cattle, and even the inhabitants are in some cases saved 

 only by being taken from the tops of their houses in boats. 



The year of our visit, 1839, added another instance to the list of 

 disasters of the latter kind; and the published accounts state that 

 twenty thousand sheep were lost in the valley of the Hawkesbury by 

 the floods. Such evils indeed appear to be of frequent occurrence, 

 and the settler in New South Wales has to contend with the elements 

 in an unusual degree. 



