MY DEPARTURE FROM SYDNEY.

On the 31st of March I quitted Sydney on the important errand of geographical discovery.  My horse, which had been in training by Brown for some weeks, seemed impatient of roads, and full of spirit, a pleasant sensation at all times to the rider, and very congenial to the high excitement of such an enterprise.

We soon arrived at Parramatta, where I obtained the loan of a good chronometer from Mr. Dunlop at the observatory.  Having noted various important memoranda and suggestions, and partaken of an early dinner, I bade my scientific and obliging friend farewell, and pursued my journey along the western road.

WESTERN PART OF CUMBERLAND.

I arrived in a few hours at Emu ferry, on the river Hawkesbury, the boundary there of the county of Cumberland.  I had traversed the county in its greatest width by this western route; and thus crossed by far the best portion.  Unlike the northern sandstone district, where the road towards Wiseman’s ferry could be made only by following one continuous ridge, the surface being intersected by deep and precipitous ravines, we were enabled here, the surface rock being trap, to travel along a perfectly straight road over a gently undulating surface.  The soil in this district is good, consisting chiefly of decomposed trap.  The land is wholly in the hands of individuals, and, in a climate sufficiently moist, would answer well for cultivation.  The road passes near Prospect Hill, which is the most conspicuous eminence in the county, and is cultivated to the summit.  The rich red soil derived from the subjacent trap-rock produces crops as abundantly now as when it was first tilled, upwards of thirty years ago.

Nearly the whole of the western portion of this county consists of soil equally good; but it remains for the most part occupied by the original wood.  It is however very generally enclosed by substantial fencing, and affords good pasturage.  There is some rich alluvial land on both banks of the Hawkesbury, and some of it, near this road, is let for as much as 20 shillings per acre.

The mansion of Sir John Jamieson, situated several miles above Emu, commands an extensive view over that noble stream, the rich margins of which are hemmed in, on the west, by the abrupt precipices of the Blue mountains.  The intermediate space beyond the ford is called Emu plains.  At the inn near this ford I passed the night, being desirous to cross the Blue mountains next day.

April 1.

At daybreak we crossed the river in the punt.  The Hawkesbury is 130 yards broad at this ferry, being the broadest freshwater stream known in Australia before the discovery of the Murray.

COUNTY OF COOK.

We now entered the county of Cook, so named by me in considering that its lofty summits must have been the first land that met the eye of the celebrated navigator on his first approach to the eastern coast.