naturally
driven into forming guesses how long he should be iu rolling to the
bottom iu company with the vehicle, or what chance he might have of
being arrested in his progress by the branches of a gum tree, which he
sees a few hundred feet below him; while it is Scarcely pleasurable to
reflect that not only might such a catastrophe result from rashness or
carelessness of the coachman, but that a blunder of the horses, or a
failure in the harness, carriage, or gear would, at such a moment, be
attended with the most fearful consequences. The mail, therefore, is
assuredly not the conveyance to be selected by any one passing through
those wilds on a tour of pleasure or recreation; pedestrian travel has
its advantages and disadvantages, but an excellent pair of legs, and a
most decided predilection for that method of locomotion, are a sine qua non for
those who have the courage to resort to it; on the whole, perhaps, the
saddle may be deemed the most eligible transit. There is no lack of
good inns on the road, adapted to customers of every degree, although
it is clear that the number at present in existence will shoi'tly be
quite inadequate to the daily increasing crowds resorting to them. It
is to be hoped that facilities will be afforded in the issue of
licenses to fitting houses, the accidental closing of two houses on the
road having been already found a serious inconvenience. It is no joke
to a weary man, arriving perhaps late in the evening, to find the house
where he expected to get quarters closed against him, and to be
compelled to drag himself and his jaded cattle over roads with which he
is unacquainted, some five or ten miles further to the next inn.
In
passing from Sydney to the gold fields, three distinct geological
formations are strikingly developed. The sandstone extends from the
sea-coast to the western foot of Mount Victoria, comprehending the
level or undulating couutry terminated by Emu Plains, and that very
singular range of hills called the Blue Mountains. It does not require
a very close examination of their gorges and precipices to remove the
surprise expressed by many who have never passed Paramatta, at the want
of energy of the earlier colonists in allowing them so long to form the
boundary of the colony, for, although comparatively unimportant in
altitude, their peculiarly long ranges of mural precipices contorted
and folded back on one another, present more formidable barriers and
far more difficult to penetrate than many mountain chains far superior
in elevation. Ascending the hill,
