258 NEW SOUTH WALES. 



them was about eighty miles in length, and for the whole distance there 

 were not more than five or six miles of level, and those are chiefly 

 due to the planning of the engineers. The road is constantly ascending 

 or descending, and on every side, as far as the view extends, is a suc- 

 cession of mountain ridges, their summits rising in detached peaks, and 

 their declivities terminating in narrow and deep gorges. Their sides 

 are sometimes clothed with a scanty growth of dark evergreens, but 

 in very many places presented only bare and rugged masses of brown 

 sandstone rock. The whole scene for the first forty miles, is wild, 

 dismal, and monotonous beyond description. In the latter part of the 

 route through the mountains, the scenery begins to improve, and finally 

 becomes very striking, the sandstone being succeeded by trap and 

 granite. The descent of Mount Victoria is celebrated for its beauty 

 throughout the colony. This road was laid out by Major Mitchell, the 

 Surveyor-General of the colony, and by him the mountain was named. 

 The descent of this mountain is more than a mile in length, and in some 

 parts is inclined at an angle of five degrees. The road is cut in the 

 solid rock, it is hard, smooth, and accurately graduated, and notwith- 

 standing its great angle of declivity, heavily laden teams ascend with 

 less difficulty than would be supposed. At the foot, the road is carried 

 along a high embankment or viaduct, which has been thrown across a 

 deep chasm, and the river flowing on either side is fine. On the left is 

 a wide deep gorge, encircled by high and naked precipices topped 

 with the sombre hue of the gum trees ; on the right, an open valley, 

 with a rivulet winding through it, sloping gently towards the northeast, 

 gives a totally different current to the feelings. Governor Macquarie 

 has named this the Vale of Clwyd, after a similar scene in Wales. 



A little beyond this descent is the Weatherboard Inn, the land about 

 which is, according to Major Mitchell, the only spot among the moun- 

 tains fit for cultivation. He mentions, in order to show the difficulties 

 the surveyors had to encounter, that one of them, a Mr. Dixon, pene- 

 trated the valley of the Grose, which, until then, had not been visited, 

 where he was lost for four days, having been bewildered by the intri- 

 cate character of the valleys ; and when he finally emerged from them, 

 he, in his official letter, " thanked God he had found his way out of 

 them." 



Shortly after leaving the inn, two small rivulets are passed, pursuing 

 opposite directions. One of them falls into Cox's river, a branch of 

 the Hawkesbury ; the other, the Fish river, discharges into the Mac- 

 quarie. Not far distant is Mount Lambie, the last and highest emi- 

 nence of the range, from whose summit the lighthouse of Port Jackson 

 is visible, at a distance of sixty miles. The road passes within a few 



