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GENERAL FEATURES.
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CHAPTER VI.
NEW SOUTH WALES.
General
features—Climate—Diseases— Seasons—Soil—Vegetable productions
.—Fruits—Seed time and harvests—Clearing—Land—Mode of obtaining it —
Squatting runs—Coal mines—Convict system—Statistics—-Comparison with
California.
The general
appearance of New South Wales is undulatory, rarely rising into hills
of any magnitude, except in the instance of what is termed the great
dividing chain of mountains running from Port Phillip to Moreton Bay.
Some portions of the country exhibit great fertility, whilst others are
arid and productive only in seasons of abundant rain. Towards the
interior, the character of the country is that of a desert,
interspersed with occasional oases. A range of lofty hills also runs along
the toast, parallel with the dividing range, or Blue Mountains, as
they are locally termed ; the distance of the two varying from
thirty to fifty miles. The intervening space is intersected by numerous
rivers, having their rise in these elevations. Beyond the Blue
Mountains, a vast extent of table-land extends in every direction,
dipping at length towards the interior, when it again arises into lofty ranges, with depressions to the northern and southern shores.
Though
the forest is in most of the settled parts universal, the timber is in
general thinly scattered, and presents no obstacles like those
encountered in the forests of America. The vegetation is extremely
beautiful, though an English farmer
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