MR. CALHY’S ATTKMPT. 
Ixxiii 
Nepean River on the other, is now entitled the 
County of Cumberland. For many years, this 
single district supplied the wants of the settlers. 
Upon it they found ample pasture for their 
herds, and sufficient employment for themselves. 
Nor was it until a succession of untoward sea- 
sons, and the rapid increase of their stock 
pointed out to them the necessity of seeking for 
more extensive pasturage, that they contem- 
plated surmounting that dark and rugged chain 
of mountains, which, like the natural ramparts 
of Spain and Italy, rose high over the nether 
forest, and broke the line of the western horizon. 
A Mr. Caley is said to have been the first 
who attempted to scale the Blue Mountains : 
but he did not long persevere in struggling with 
difficulties too great for ordinary resolution to 
overcome. It appears that he retraced his steps, 
after having penetrated about sixteen miles 
into their dark and precipitous recesses ; and a 
heap of stones, which the traveller passes about 
that distance from Erne Ford, on the road to Ba- 
thurst, marks the extreme point reached by the 
first expedition to the westward of the N epean river. 
Shortly after the failure of this expedition, the 
sad effects of a long protracted drought called 
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