of importance to avoid this range. Bowral, the highest part,
consists of quartz or very hard sandstone.

SANDSTONE COUNTRY.

On leaving Berrima the road traverses several low ridges of trap-rock and
then turns to the south-east in order to avoid the ravines of the Nattai;
for we again find here that ferruginous sandstone which desolates so
large a portion of New South Wales and, to all appearance, New Holland,
presenting in the interior desert plains of red sand, and on the eastern
side of the dividing range, a world of stone quarries and sterility. It
is only where trap or granite or limestone occur that the soil is worth
possessing, and to this extent every settler is under the necessity of
becoming a geologist; he must also be a geographer, that he may find
water and not lose himself in the bush; and it must indeed be admitted
that the intelligence of the native youth in all such matters is little
inferior to that of the aborigines.

The barren sandstone country is separated from the seashore by a lofty
range of trap-rock connected with that of Mittagong, and we accordingly
find an earthly paradise between that range and the seashore. The
Illawarra is a region in which the rich soil is buried under matted
creepers, tree-ferns and the luxuriant shade of a tropical vegetation
nourished both by streams from the lofty range and the moist breezes of
the sea. There a promising and extensive field for man's industry lies
still uncultivated, but when the roads now partially in progress shall
have connected it with the rest of the colony it must become one of the
most certain sources of agricultural produce in New South Wales.

THE ILLAWARRA.

The sandstone on the interior side extends to the summit of the trap
range and its numerous ravines occasion the difficulties which have
hitherto excluded wheel-carriages from access to the Illawarra.

LUPTON'S INN.

To cross a country so excavated is impossible except in certain
directions, but the best lines these fastnesses admit of have been
ascertained and marked out in connection with that for the great southern
road, which ought to leave the present line at Lupton's Inn. I consider
this the most important public work still necessary to complete the
system of great roads planned by me in New South Wales; but I have not
had means at my disposal hitherto for carrying into effect this portion
of the general plan.

From Lupton's Inn Sydney bore north-east, yet I was obliged t