Mr. Boydell was also cultivating the vine, of which he made a light kind of wine, a very excellent species of hock.  The Messrs. McArthurs have been at great expense in promoting this branch of cultivation, and are entitled to their share of credit.  But to Mr. Bushby the colony owes the first introduction of the grape, which will hereafter prove of inestimable benefit, from the great commerce to which it must give rise.  I may here mention that the same gentleman has deserved highly of his fellow-colonists, by having been the means of bringing good water from some distance into Sydney.  The importance of this to the town was very apparent even to us transient visitors, from the crowd of water carts we constantly saw during the severe drought, patiently waiting their turn to fill from the pump in Hyde Park.

I was fortunate enough to find two gentlemen to return with as companions, from Cam yr Allyn, which we left early, under the guidance of a native, mounted on one of Mr. Boydell’s horses.  We were to have made a short cut by crossing the hilly country; but after going some distance we found our guide at fault, and he very innocently acknowledged himself to be, as he termed it, “murry stupid.”  It was a long time, he said, since he had travelled that way.  Having however provided myself with a sketch of the country and a compass, I was enabled to conduct the party out of this dilemma.

A CLEARING LEASE.

On reaching the banks of William river, we inquired our way at a cottage, whose occupants, I found, held a small piece of land on what is called a clearing lease—­that is to say, they were allowed to retain possession of it for so many years, for the labour of clearing the land.  Many an industrious poor man is raised to opulence by this means, a pair of oxen being all that is necessary to set them going.  With them they drag away the fallen timber, and afterwards plough the land.  It is astonishing to see what work oxen will do; they drag drays over almost incredible steeps, not quartering them as horses do, but going straight up, be the hills ever so steep.

We learnt here that the township of Dungog, through which our road to Stroud lay, was close by.  We should readily know it, we were informed, by the lock-up, a place of confinement for misbehavers, and generally the first building in Australian towns.  The particular erection alluded to, seemed to be well known in the neighbourhood.  As we crossed the William river I was much struck with the richness of the flats on its banks.

CROSSING THE KARUAH.

In fording the Karuah, just before reaching Stroud, the effect was singular and startling.  The thick foliage arching over the river, quite shut out the little light the stars afforded, and as we had to descend into it, down a very steep bank, it was like plunging into a dark bottomless pit; the noise of the stream over the stones alone told us we should find a footing below.  Into this gloomy cave our party one by