This seeming deviation on the part of Nature from her usual laws will no longer appear such, if we consider its results for a moment.  The very floods which swell the rivers to overflowing, are followed by the most beneficent effects; and, rude and violent as the means are by which she accomplishes her purpose, they form, no doubt, a part of that process by which she preserves the balance of good and evil.  Vast quantities of the best soil have been thus washed down from the mountains to accumulate in more accessible places.  From frequent depositions, a great extent of country along the banks of every river and creek has risen high above the influence of the floods, and constitutes the richest tracts in the colony.  The alluvial flats of the Nepean, the Hawkesbury, and the Hunter, are striking instances of the truth of these observations; to which the plains of O’Connell and Bathurst must be added.  The only good soil upon the two latter, is in the immediate neighbourhood of the Macquarie River:  but, even close to its banks, the depositions are of little depth, lying on a coarse gravelly soil, the decomposition of the nearer ranges.  The former is found to diminish in thickness, according to the concavity of the valley through which the Macquarie flows, and at length becomes mixed with the coarser soil.  This deposit is alone fit for agricultural purposes; but it does not necessarily follow that the distant country is unavailable since it is admitted, that the best grazing tracts are upon the secondary ranges of granite and porphyry.  These ranges generally have the appearance of open forest, and are covered with several kinds of grasses, among which the long oat-grass is the most abundant.

County of Cumberland.

If we except the valley of the Nepean, the banks of the South Creek, the Pennant Hills near Parramatta, and a few other places, the general soil of the county of Cumberland, is of the poorest description.  It is superficial in most places, resting either upon a cold clay, or upon sandstone; and is, as I have already remarked, a ferruginous compound of the finest dust.  Yet there are many places upon its surface, (hollows for instance,) in which vegetable decay has accumulated, or valleys, into which it has been washed, that are well adapted for the usual purposes of agriculture, and would, if the country was more generally cleared, be found to exist to a much greater extent than is at present imagined.  I have frequently observed the isolated patches of better land, when wandering through the woods, both on the Parramatta River, and at a greater distance from the coast.  And I cannot but think, that it would be highly advantageous to those who possess large properties in the County of Cumberland to let Portions of them.  The concentration of people round their capital, promotes more than anything else the prosperity of a colony, by creating a reciprocal demand for the produce both of the country and the town, since the one would necessarily stimulate the energy of the farmer, as the other would rouse the enterprise of the merchant.  The consideration, however, of such a subject is foreign to my present purpose.