had nothing to support them for several days, except two or three small birds, the refreshment which they procured had nearly overcome them.  Such were the difficulties attending excursions in the interior of this country.  With Wilson, who knew much of the country, and was well qualified to conduct the party, the governor sent a lad, a free servant of his, who was capable of giving an account of the occurrences of the journey; and from him the following particulars were collected: 

From Mount Hunter (which was the highest land then known in that part of the country, and distant from the township of Parramatta from about 30 to 34 miles in a SW direction) they took their departure on the 24th of last month, travelling in a SSW course for 18 miles, 12 of which laid through a fine open country.  There they fell in with the river Nepean, which was found winding to the southward and westward, close behind the cow pasture plains.  The banks of the river being at this place exceedingly steep and rocky, they had some difficulty in getting across.  On the other side the ground wore a barren, unpromising appearance; and during the day they saw only a few kangaroos of a particular kind, having long, black, and brushy tails; with a few birds, which from the length of the tail feathers, they denominated pheasants.

On the 25th they continued in their course, SSW for six miles, through a country in general open, and apparently of a good black soil.  In the course of the day they saw many kangaroos and several emus; and fell in with a party of natives, one of whom engaged to accompany them, on condition of their halting for that night where they then were.  Consenting to this, they had leisure to examine a hill in that neighbourhood, the face of which appeared white, and proved to be an immense cliff of salt, a specimen of which they brought in.

On the 26th, they determined to incline more to the westward, and travelled 16 miles in a direction WSW over a rocky country, covered with brush wood, and a prickly kind of vine.  They did not meet with any natives; and that animals existed there, they only saw by their faeces.

They continued on the 27th travelling in the same direction about 16 miles; the first six of which were like those of the preceding day.  From thence they got into an open but mountainous country, where they crossed a small river, and discovered a quantity of coal and limestone.  Here every mile they went the scene improved.  The rocky and barren ground was exchanged for a flat country and beautiful meadows, furnishing pasture for the kangaroos and emus, several of which they saw.  The timber was observed to run small, and to be thinly scattered about, there being scarcely ten trees upon an acre of ground.  The quality of them was known in the settlement, where a similar timber was called the Black Wattle.