NEW SOUTH WALES. 451 
ascending or descending, and on every side, as far as the eye could 
reach, extended a sea of mountain ridges intersecting one another in 
all directions, their summits rising in detached peaks, and their decli- 
vities terminating in deep and narrow gorges. ‘The sides of these 
eminences were generally clothed with a scanty growth of dark ever- 
green, but in some places presented only bare and rugged precipices, 
or masses of brown sandstone rocks. ‘The whole scene, for the first 
forty miles, was wild, dismal and monotonous beyond description.” 
“From Mount Lambie, the last, and one of the highest of the emi- 
nences in this range, the summit of the lighthouse of Port Jackson is 
visible at a distance in a direct line of sixty miles.”’ 
Similar precipitous heights and depths were met with by the writer 
on an excursion from Illawarra into the ‘“ Kangaroo Grounds,” a se- 
cluded valley to the southwest of this district.* A few incidents of the 
way may be mentioned in illustration of the peculiar sandstone scenery 
of New South Wales. The Illawarra Mountain bounds on the west 
the seashore district of the same name, and is about two thousand feet 
in height. It rises from below with a very rapid slope covered with 
dense vegetation, till near the summit, where a perpendicular face of 
bare rock, made up of the edges of horizontal layers, finishes off the 
upper three hundred feet. As we approached the top, on the ascent, 
the path wound through narrow breaks in the rock, and after much 
climbing, especially difficult for our horses, we at last landed on the 
wide plain of the summit. Proceeding about three miles upon this ele- 
vated plain, we reached a small stream, flowing on in gentle rapids. 
We were led by our guide a few rods down the stream, and sud- 
denly came upon the verge of a narrow gorge two hundred and fifty 
feet deep, presenting, in its abrupt sides, the usual succession of hori- 
zontal sandstone beds, with occasional clayey layers. From the sunny 
plain above, the streamlet made the venturesome descent. ‘Too 
small to clear the whole height at a single leap, although very nearly 
perpendicular, it went skipping on from one projecting rock to ano- 
ther, now sliding down a mossy surface, and then leaping again to 
another point below; and finally the exhausted waters reached the 
bottom in a thin spray, falling too lightly into the limpid pool to ripple 
its dark surface. Deep down in the narrow gorge there were a few 
large trees and luxuriant shrubbery growing from projecting shelfs of 
* A dotted line on the map shows the route taken by the author over the district of 
Illawarra and its vicinity. 
