g farms of from thirty to a hundred acres.

The necessity for a permanent land communication, between the seat of
government and the northern part of the colony was obvious, and, indeed,
a road in that direction had been the subject of petitions from the
settlers to Sir Thomas Brisbane, under whose auspices the track across
the mountain beyond the Hawkesbury, was first discovered and surveyed by
Mr. Finch. This track, with some slight alterations, was found, on a more
general survey, to be the most favourable line for a cart-road in that
direction, which the country afforded; and it had been opened but a short
time, when I thus proceeded along it, accompanied by Mr. Simpson, the
assistant-surveyor, who, under my direction, had accomplished the work.
Just then however the first steam vessel arrived in Australia, and
afforded a regular coast-communication between Sydney and the northern
portion of the colony. The land communication became, in consequence, an
object of less importance than before, to the small handful of settlers
at least, although it was not the less essential to a respectable
government, or where an armed force had been organised, as in New South
Wales, solely for the suppression of bushrangers, a sub-genus in the
order banditti, which, happily, can no longer exist, except in places
inaccessible to the mounted police. The ascent northward from this ferry
on the Hawkesbury, is a substantial and permanent work, affording a
favourable specimen of the value of convict labour, in anticipating the
wants of an increasing population.

The country traversed by this new road is equally barren, and more
mountainous than the district between Parramatta and the Hawkesbury. Amid
those rocky heights and depths, across which I had recently toiled on
foot, marking out with no ordinary labour, the intended line, I had now
the satisfaction to trot over a new and level road, winding like a thread
through the dreary labyrinth before me, and in which various parts had
already acquired a local appellation not wholly unsuited to their
character, such as Hungry Flat, Devil's Backbone, No-grass Valley,* and
Dennis's Dog-kennel. In fact, the whole face of the country is composed
of sandstone rock, and but partially covered with vegetation. The horizon
is only broken by one or two summits, which are different both in outline
and quality from the surrounding country. These isolated heights
generally consist of trap-rock, and are cov