gainst the wind_.
See this stated and explained by Major Mitchell, "Three Expeditions,"
vol. i. p. 19.

It may have been observed, possibly, in what has been related of the
country and scenery of New Holland in its natural state, that the
descriptions of very beautiful or fertile spots have been comparatively
few. Now, although it is true that a very large portion of the known
surface of that island is occupied by the sandstone rock, which is in
its very nature utterly barren, nevertheless, it is by no means to
be supposed that there is any scarcity of most rich and beautiful
land--some of it fit for immediate occupation--to be found in most
parts of Australia. In attempting to draw a picture of a distant and
remarkable region, we are almost sure to mark and bring distinctly out
its most peculiar and striking features; the scenes resembling those of
our own quiet and happy land are passed over as tame and familiar, while
the dreariness of the desert, the horrors of a "barren and dry land
where no water is,"--the boundless plains, or the bare mountain-tops,
the lonely shore or the rocky isle--scenes like these, are commonly
dwelt upon and described. In short, the very spots which are least
enticing, _in reality_, for the colonist to settle in, are often most
agreeable, _in description_, for the stranger to read of.

But, since the reader must not be left with the erroneous and unpleasant
impression that the country of which we have been treating is, for the
most part, a mere wilderness, if not a desert, we may select two
recently-discovered districts of it to serve for a favourable specimen
of the beauty and fertility of many others, which cannot now be noticed.

The following description of Wellington Valley (now recently included in
the limits of the colony,) is from the pen of its first discoverer, Mr.
Oxley, and other travellers bear witness that it is not overcharged: "A
mile and a half brought us into the valley which we had seen on our
first descending into the glen: imagination cannot fancy anything more
beautifully picturesque than the scene which burst upon us. The breadth
of the valley, to the base of the opposite gently-rising hills, was
between three and four miles, studded with fine trees, upon a soil which
for richness can nowhere be exceeded; its extent, north and south, we
could not see: to the west, it was bounded by the lofty rocky ranges by
which we had entered it; these were covered to the summ