NEW SOUTH WALES. 171 



many miles in an east and west direction, is said by Major Mitchell 

 to be a prolongation of the range which runs parallel to the coast. 

 According to him, at the distance of one hundred miles inland, the 

 range trends to the northward, and thence pursues a course to the 

 northeast. 



To the northward of the Liverpool range, plains of considerable 

 extent spread over the country, and form the district of New England, 

 which affords fine pasturage. These plains lie at an altitude of be- 

 tween two and three thousand feet, and from that circumstance 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 climate. 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 subject 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 im- 

 mense 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 



