XIX 
APPEARANCE OF THE FORESTS 
461 
arms. The power which the Government possesses, by means 
of forced labour, of at once opening good roads throughout the 
country, has been, I believe, one main cause of the early 
prosperity of this colony. I slept at night at a very comfort¬ 
able inn at Emu ferry, thirty-five miles from Sydney, and near 
the ascent of the Blue Mountains. This line of road is the 
most frequented, and has been the longest inhabited of any in 
the colony. The whole land is enclosed with high railings, 
for the farmers have not succeeded in rearing hedges. There 
are many substantial houses and good cottages scattered about ; 
but although considerable pieces of land are under cultivation, 
the greater part yet remains as when first discovered. 
The extreme uniformity of the vegetation is the most 
remarkable feature in the landscape of the greater part of 
New South Wales. Everywhere we have an open woodland, 
the ground being partially covered with a very thin pasture, 
with little appearance of verdure. The trees nearly all belong 
to one family, and mostly have their leaves placed in a vertical, 
instead of, as in Europe, in a nearly horizontal position : the 
foliage is scanty, and of a peculiar pale green tint, without any 
gloss. Hence the woods appear light and shadowless : this, 
although a loss of comfort to the traveller under the scorching 
rays of summer, is of importance to the farmer, as it allows 
grass to grow where it otherwise would 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 hemi¬ 
sphere, 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 foliage of the leafless 
tree. They may, however, say that we pay dearly for this 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 of the Eucalypti falls annually, or 
