The town
stands at the height of 2200 feet above the sea, on the banks of
the Macquarie: this is one of the rivers flowing into the vast and
scarcely known interior. The line of watershed which divides the
inland streams from those on the coast, has a height of about 3000
feet, and runs in a north and south direction at the distance of
from eighty to a hundred miles from the seaside. The Macquarie
figures in the map as a respectable river, and it is the largest of
those draining this part of the watershed; yet to my surprise I
found it a mere chain of ponds, separated from each other by spaces
almost dry. Generally a small stream is running; and sometimes
there are high and impetuous floods. Scanty as the supply of the
water is throughout this district, it becomes still scantier
further inland.
JANUARY 22, 1836.
I commenced my return and followed a new road called Lockyer's Line
along which the country is rather more hilly and picturesque. This
was a long day's ride; and the house where I wished to sleep was
some way off the road, and not easily found. I met on this
occasion, and indeed on all others, a very general and ready
civility among the lower orders, which, when one considers what
they are, and what they have been, would scarcely have been
expected.
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