promising as the fine region we had left was embraced
in my view from that point. I perceived long patches of open plain
interspersed with forest hills and low woody ranges, among which I could
trace out a good line of route for another fifty miles homewards. The
highest of the mountains lay to the south and evidently belonged to the
coast range, if it might be so called; and on that side a lofty mass
arose above the rest and promised a view towards the sea, that height
being distant from the hill on which I stood about thirty miles. A broad
chain of woody hills connected the coast range with Mount Byng, and I
could trace the general course of several important streams through the
country to the east of it. Northward I saw a little of the interior
plains and the points where the various ranges terminated upon them. The
sun was setting when I left Mount Byng but I depended on one of our
natives, Tommy Came-last, who was then with me, for finding our way to
the camp; and who on such occasions could trace my steps backwards with
wonderful facility by day or night.

EXPEDITION PASS.

September 29.

The range before us was certainly rather formidable for the passage of
carts, but home lay beyond it, while delay and famine were synonymous
terms with us at that time. By following up the valley in which we had
encamped I found early on this morning an easy way through which the
carts might gain the lowest part of the range. Having conducted them to
this point without any other inconvenience besides the overturning of one
cart (from bad driving) we descended along the hollow of a ravine after
making it passable by throwing some rocks into the narrow part near its
head. The ravine at length opened, as I had expected, into a grassy
valley with a fine rivulet flowing through it, and from this valley we
debouched into the still more open granitic country at the foot of Mount
Byng. The pass thus auspiciously discovered and opened, over a neck
apparently the very lowest of the whole range, I named Expedition-pass,
confident that such a line of communication between the southern coast
and Sydney must, in the course of time, become a very considerable
thoroughfare. The change of soil however introduced us to the old
difficulty from which we had been happily relieved for some time, for we
came once more upon rotten and boggy ground. We met with this unexpected
impediment in an open-looking flat near a rivulet I was about to cross,
wh