In the course of the day we crossed the line of a hurricane that had just swept with resistless force over the country, preserving a due north course, and which we had heard from a distance, fortunately too great to admit of its injuring us.  It had opened a fearful gap in the forest through which it had passed, of about a quarter of a mile in breadth.  Within that space, no tree had been able to withstand its fury, for it had wrenched every bough from such as it had failed to prostrate, and they stood naked in the midst of the surrounding wreck.  I am inclined to think that the rudeness of nature itself in these wild and uninhabited regions, gives birth to these terrific phenomena.  They have never occurred, so far as I know, in the located districts.  Our guide deserted us in the early part of the day without assigning any reason for doing so.  He went off without being noticed, and thus lost the reward that would have been bestowed on him had he mentioned his wish to return to Yass.  I the more regretted his having sneaked off, because he had had the kindness to put us on a track we could not well lose.

Country from Underaliga to Morumbidgee.

Underaliga, is said to be thirty miles from the Morumbidgee.  The country between the two has a sameness of character throughout.  It is broken and irregular, yet no one hill rises conspicuously over the rest.  We found ourselves at one time on their summits beside huge masses of granite, at others crossing valleys of rich soil and green appearance.  A country under cultivation is so widely different from one the sod of which has never been broken by the plough, that it is difficult and hazardous to form a decided opinion on the latter.  If you ask a stockman what kind of a country lies, either to his right, or to his left, he is sure to condemn it, unless it will afford the most abundant pasture.  Accustomed to roam about from one place to another, these men despise any but the richest tracts, and include the rest of the neighbourhood in one sweeping clause of condemnation.  Thus I was led to expect, that we should pass over a country of the very worst description, between Underaliga and the Morumbidgee.  Had it been similar to that midway between Yass and Underaliga, we should, in truth, have found it so; but it struck me, that there were many rich tracts of ground among the valleys of the former, and that the very hills had a fair covering of grass upon them.  What though the soil was coarse, if the vegetation was good and sufficient?  Perhaps the greatest drawback to this part of the interior is the want of water; yet we crossed several creeks, and remarked some deep water holes, that can never be exhausted, even in the driest season.  Wherever the situation favoured our obtaining a view of the country on either side of us, while among these hills, we found that to the eastward lofty and mountainous; whilst that to the westward, had the appearance of fast sinking into a level.