ing a passage, until on
the 28th of the month, they camped on the edge of the steep descent that
had lately marched beside them. The decline was, however, not quite so
abrupt, and the face no longer composed of solid rock. They paused to
overlook what lay before them and immediately below, and found the view
more gratifying than they had anticipated. What they had at first taken
for sandy barren soil proved now, on nearer inspection, to be forest-land
fairly covered with a good growth of grass. The horses not having tasted
fresh grass for some days, they cut a slanting trench across the sloping
face of the descent in order to afford the horses some sort of foot-hold,
and managed to get them down to a little feed that evening.

Next morning they were up and away early, and reached the foot of the
mountain (Mount York) at 9 a.m., having had to carry the pack-loads down
most of the way themselves, as it was too steep for laden horses to
preserve their balance with safety. The actual base of the mountain was
reached through a gap in the rocks, some thirty feet in width.

They now found themselves on what was then termed meadow land, drained by
the upper tributaries of the Warragamba; and this country presenting no
serious obstacle to their further progress, they rightly concluded that
they had now surmounted every difficulty. They followed the mountain
stream up for some distance and, at the furthest point they reached,
ascended a high sugar-loaf hill, which surveyor Evans, who followed in
their footsteps, called Mount Blaxland. From the summit they had an
extensive view all around, and Blaxland described the character of the
country they saw in the following words: "Forest and grass land,
sufficient to support the stock of the colony for the next thirty years."

Just here, let us compare this prophecy with a similar one made by Evans
a few months afterwards, on the pasture lands of the upper Macquarie:
"The increase of stock for some hundred years cannot overrun it."

The provisions of the explorers were now nearly expended; their apparel,
especially their footgear, was in rags and tatters; on the other hand,
the work that they had set themselves to do was well done. They had
vanquished the Blue Mountains. Their return was uneventful. After
breakfast on the 6th of June, they crossed the Nepean, their provisions,
with the exception of a little flour, being quite consumed. We thus see
how in the end the impenetrable range,