136 
iilii JOSEPH BANK.i. 
very severe and sliort liills for the loaded carts. About 5 miles further on (or 
5'Z in all) we came to a very extensive prospect from a lofty spot, when we found 
a heap of stones, supposed to have been placed there by an adventurer who had 
penetrated thus far with much difficulty in his endeavour to cross the mountains. 
He had arriv’ed at it from a different direction from the one we had now taken, 
and with much more difficulty, but finding from this place no end to the moun- 
tains, and the country looking most unpromising around him, and his provision.s 
being nearly expended, he gave up what he thought a fruitless attempt, and 
retraced his steps, after erecting this pile of stones, to which the Governor gave 
tlie name of “ Keely’s ” (Caley’s) Repulse, &c. 
And again : — • 
Near to the 18-mile mark (measuring from Emu Ford) a pile of stones attracted 
attention. It is close to the line of road on the top of a rugged and abrupt ascent, 
and is supposed to have been placed by Mr. Caley as the extreme limit of his tour. 
Hence the Governor gave that part of the mountain the name of “ Caley’s Repulse.” 
The following notes referring to Caley are taken from Allan Cun- 
ningham’s manuscript journal which he kept when on Oxley’s Expedi- 
tion in 1817 : — 
Near the 18th Mile Mark,* in an open, and extremely bleak barren part, near 
the roadside, upon a small eminence of the rugged ascent, stands a pile of stones, 
.supposed to have been erected by the indefatigable and persevering botanist, 
Mr. George Caley, and suspected to be his furthest advance westwards, in a grand 
botanical excursion which he had undertaken with a view' of crossing these 
mountain.s. His Excellency in jiassing this place on his route to Bathurst in the 
year 1815, called it Caley’s Repulse. (9th April. 1817.) 
According to the following statement, the cairn was in existence 
in 1826. 
Cayley's Repidsc . — The late Dr. Lang thus refers to the above in his history. 
The place was pointed out to me by a respectable settler of the Bathurst district, 
on crossing the mountains for the first time in 182(i. It is certainly a most 
remarkable locality, nothing being visible in any direction, but immense masse-s 
of weather-beaten sandstone rocks towering over each other in all the sublimity 
of desolation. Quite a deep chasm inter-secting a lofty ridge covered with blasted 
trees, seemed to present an insurmountable barrier to all further progress.j 
It is certain that the name “ Caley’s Repulse ” was a misnomer, 
for there is no evidence that Caley was ever on the Blue Mountains 
proper; but whose cairn was it? 
Covernor King saysj : — 
Some men, exploring the mountain.s from the junction of the Hawkesbury and 
Grose, saw the heap of stones said to have been placed there by Mr. Bass as the 
bounds of his excursion in that direction. 
• From Emu Ferry. 
t '■ Australian Explorers.” by Kevd. George Grimm. 
I Hist. Rec., V, 725. 
