XII. NORMAN SELFE. 



of one set of valve gear, which at the request of the Engineering 

 Association, the purchaser Mr. presented to the Techno- 

 logical Museum, they were all broken up for old metal. — Sic transit 

 gloria mundi. 



Major Mitchell and Mount Victoria. — For some time after the 

 Blue Mountains were first crossed in 1813, by Messrs. Wentworth, 

 Lawson, and Blaxland, the descent into the Yale of Clwyd was 

 right over the brow of " Big Mount York"; but the exact direction 

 is now scarcely traceable in the worst places. This track was 

 succeeded by the notable road made in Macquarie's time by 

 William Cox, j.p. of Windsor, who in 1815 took the Governor to 

 Bathurst over the new pass, which by means of convict labour he 

 had completed in six months. This road descended by zig-zags 

 into the valley running parallel to Darling Causeway, still known 

 to the people of Hartly Yale as "Long Alley." It turns off from 

 the Western Road at One Tree Hill (now Mount Yictoria) and 

 comes out at the Kerosene Mines ; its formation must have involved 

 for the period, an immense amount of labour and blasting. It is 

 still negociable with a saddle horse, althongh the walls have given 

 way in places, and trunks of big trees lie across the track. Since 

 the establishment of the Hartly Yale platform on the railway, 

 and the formation of a new road down thence into the vale, tourists 

 and sightseers have this Long Alley road pretty much to themselves. 



In 1827, during t the Governorship of Lieutenant-General 

 Darling, Major Mitchell, the Surveyor-General, proposed to con- 

 struct a new pass down into the Yale of Clwyd by a deviation to 

 the south of Mount York. In 1829 Major Lockyer, the Surveyor 

 of Roads and Bridges, opposed this scheme on economical grounds, 

 and it led to Governor Darling appointing a Commission to enquire 

 into the matter. This resulted in the Mount Yictoria route being 

 adopted, and to Mr. John Nicholson, a Manchester Engineer, 

 being appointed to the charge of roads and bridges under the 

 Surveyor-General. 



The great work was then put in hand of cutting down the hill 

 sides and building up the walls for the Pass of Mount Yittoria, 



