ritory, which, flanked by the ocean on the one hand, and
embraced as it were by the 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 seasons, and the rapid increase of their stock pointed out to
them the necessity of seeking for more extensive pasturage, that they
contemplated 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.

MR. CALEY'S ATTEMPT.

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 Bathurst, marks the
extreme point reached by the first expedition to the westward of the
Nepean river.

LIEUT. LAWSON'S EXPEDITION.

Shortly after the failure of this expedition, the sad effects of a long
protracted drought called forth a more general spirit of enterprise and
exertion among the settlers; and Mr. Oxley makes honorable mention of the
perseverance and resolution with which Lieut. Lawson, of the 104th
regiment, accompanied by Messrs. Blaxland and Wentworth, conducted an
expedition into the Blue Mountains. Their efforts were successful: and
the objects of their enterprise would have been completely attained, but
for the failure of their provisions at a moment when their view of the
distant interior was such as to convince them that they had overcome the
most formidable obstacles to their advance, and that in their further
progress few impediments would have presented themselves.

MR. EVANS' DISCOVERIES.

The success of this undertaking induced Governor Macquarie to further the
prosecution of inland discovery, and of attempts to ascertain the nature
of the country of which Mr. Lawson only obtained a glimpse. An expedition
was accordingly dispatched under Mr. Evans, the Deputy Surveyor-General,
to follow the route taken by the former one, and to penetrate as far as
practicable into the western i