proceeded about five miles and three-quarters. Not
being able to find water, they did not halt till five o'clock, when they
took up their station on the edge of the precipice. To their great
satisfaction they discovered, that what they had supposed to be sandy,
barren land below the mountain, was forest land, covered with good
grass, and with timber of an inferior quality. In the evening they
contrived to get their horses down the mountain by cutting a small
trench with a hoe, which kept them from slipping, where they again
tasted grass for the first time since they left the forest land on the
other side of the mountain. They were getting into miserable condition.
Water was found about two miles below the foot of the mountain. In this
day's route little timber was observed fit for building.

On the 29th, having got up the horses and laden them, they began to
descend the mountain at seven o'clock, through a pass in the rock about
thirty feet wide, which they had discovered the day before, when the
want of water put them on the alert. Part of the descent was so steep
that the horses could but just keep their footing, without a load, so
that, for some way the party were obliged to carry the packages
themselves. A cart-road might, however, easily be made by cutting a
slanting trench along the side of the mountain, which is here covered
with earth.

They reached the foot at nine o'clock a.m., and proceeded two miles,
mostly through open meadow land, clear of trees, the grass from two to
three feet high. They encamped on the bank of a fine stream of water.
The natives, as observed by the smoke of their fires, moved before them,
as yesterday. The dogs killed a kangaroo, which was very acceptable, as
the party had lived on salt meat since they caught the last. The timber
seen this day appeared rotten and unfit for building.

The climate here was found very much colder than that of the mountain or
of the settlements on the east side, where no signs of frost had made
its appearance when the party set out. During the night the ground was
covered with a thick frost, and a leg of the kangaroo was quite frozen.

They now conceived that they had sufficiently accomplished the design of
their undertaking, having surmounted all the difficulties which had
hitherto prevented the interior of the country from being explored, and
the Colony from being extended. They had partly cleared, or, at least,
marked out a road by which the passage