summit. The weather was boisterous and
the country which that height presented to my view seemed quite
inaccessible, at least in the direction of the colony where:

Hills upon hills and alps on alps arose.

(Footnote. See figure with the fowling-piece in Plate 17 Volume 1.)

IMPEDIMENTS IN THE ROUTE.

The only valley of any extent which could be seen was that watered by the
rivulet below, and this extended, as I have stated, to the westward, a
direction in which we could not follow it with any prospect of either
getting nearer home or reaching a cattle station. Our provisions were
exhausted, while the rocky fastnesses of a mountain region still
threatened to shut us out from the Murrumbidgee, a river on whose banks
we hoped to meet with civilised people once more and which, according to
the map, was almost within our reach. Again and again I examined the
mountains with my glass, and only discovered that they were numerous and
all ranging towards the north-west, a direction right across our way to
the Murrumbidgee. I could indeed trace among the hills in the north the
grand valley through which the river flowed, but the intervening ranges
seemed to deny any access to it from this side. I was determined however
to find some valley likely to lead us into that of the Murrumbidgee, and
although it could only be looked for beyond that mountain range, our
route had been so good and so direct thus far, from the very shores of
the southern ocean, that I could not despair of crossing the
comparatively small space occupied by these mountains; and I descended
the hill firmly resolved to continue our course in the same direction as
we best could. I found on reaching the foot that, to the delight of the
men, more cattle marks had been discovered in the valley, and in one
place Piper pointed out a spot where a bullock had been eaten by the
natives. Following the little stream upwards I at length placed our camp
in a grassy valley near its head and then, on riding forward, I found
that no obstruction existed to our progress with the carts on the
following day for at least several miles.

October 23.

The hills we ascended offered much less impediment than I had reason to
apprehend when I surveyed them at a distance, but they became at length
so steep-sided and sharp-pointed that to proceed further, even by keeping
the crests of a range, seemed a very doubtful undertaking: to cross such
ranges was still more difficult while the p