518 



NEW SOUTH WALES. 



Jan. 1836. 



although a loss of comfort to the traveller under the scorch- 

 ing rays of summer, is of importance to the farmer, as it 

 allows grass to grow where it otherwise could not. The 

 leaves are not shed periodically : this character appears 

 common to the entire southern hemisphere, namely. South 

 America, Australia, and the Cape of Good Hope. The 

 inhabitants of this hemisphere and of the intertropical 

 regions, thus lose perhaps one of the most glorious, though 

 to our eyes common, spectacles in the world, — the first 

 bursting into full foKage of the leafless tree. They may, 

 however, say that we pay dearly for our spectacle, by having 

 the land covered with mere naked skeletons for so many 

 months. This is too true ; but our senses thus acquire a keen 

 relish for the exquisite green of the spring, which the eyes of 

 those living within the tropics, sated during the long year with 

 the gorgeous productions of those glowing climates, can never 

 experience. The greater number of the trees, with the exception 

 of some of the blue gums, do not attain a large size ; but they 

 grow tall and tolerably straight, and stand well apart. The 

 bark of some falls annuall}^, or hangs dead in long shreds, 

 which swing about with the wind ; and hence the woods 

 appear desolate and untidy. Nowhere is there an appearance 

 of verdure, but rather that of arid sterility. I caiinot imagine 

 a more complete contrast in every respect than between the 

 forests of Valdivia, or Chiloe, and the woods of Australia. 



Although this colony flourishes so remarkably, the ap- 

 pearance of infertility is to a certain degree real. The soil 

 without doubt is good, but there is so great a deficiency 

 both of rain and running water, that it cannot produce much. 

 The agricultural crops, and often those in gardens, are 

 estimated to fail once in three years ; and this has even 

 happened on successive years. Hence the colony cannot 

 supply itself with the bread and vegetables, which its in- 

 habitants consume. It is essentially pastoral, and chiefly 

 so for sheep, and not the larger quadrupeds. The alluvial 

 land near Emu ferry was some of the best cultivated which 

 I saw; and certainly the scenery on the banks of the 



