173 
Interior of New South Wales. 
mass of table land, which I named (finding none of the aborigines 
there) Hope’s Table Land. Between it and the still higher 
range towards the coast, lay a very broken sandstone country, 
which was difficult to pass through with carts; but when I had 
at length discovered, beyond Hope’s Table Land, the head of 
another promising river falling to the north-west, we soon found 
a way, through which my indefatigable party led the carts and 
bullock team without the least damage. Mount P. P. King, a 
pointed volcanic cone, long. 147° 37' 40" E., lat. 25° 9' 10", 
is near the head of that river, which we followed down until it 
turned, as all the others had done, to the south-west, and I was 
again obliged to halt and take a long ride to the northward, 
where another chain of summits extended westward, nearly under 
the 25th parallel of latitude. Beyond that range, whose summits 
are all of trap-rock, I found deep sandstone gullies; and in fol¬ 
lowing down one of these, I reached an extensive grassy valley, 
which terminated on a reedy lake in a more open country. The 
lake was supplied by springs, arising in a swamp at the gorge of 
the valley, which supported a flowing stream of the purest water. 
This stream spread into the extensive reedy lake, and, to my 
surprise, was absorbed by it, at least so as to escape through 
some subterraneous outlet, for the channel of the river in which 
the lake terminated was dry. The country is adorned by hills of 
the most romantic form, presenting outlines which surpass in 
picturesque beauty the fairest creations of the painter. Several 
pyramids mark the spot where the springs were first discovered 
(and whence I now write). Lower down, appear over the woods, 
isolated rocks, resembling ruined castles, temples, and gothic 
cathedrals. Others have apertures through them, and the trees 
being also very varied and graceful in form and rich in colour, 
contribute so much to the beauty of the scenery, that I have been 
induced to distinguish the river and lake by the name of a 
painter. Returning to the party, we soon brought the carts and 
dray down the sandstone cliffs to the banks of the Salvator, and 
pursued that river downwards until I discovered, which was soon 
obvious, that its course turned to the eastward of north; conse¬ 
quently that we were upon a river falling to the eastern coast. 
