Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.3)

524 NEW SOUTH WALES. Jan. 1836. the Weatherboard. So early in the day the gulf was fiUed with a thin blue haze, which, although destroying the general effect, added to the apparent depth at which the forest was stretched below the country on which we were standing. Soon after leaving the Blackheath, we descended from the sandstone platform by the pass of Mount Victoria. To effect this pass, an enormous quantity of stone has been cut through ; the design, and its manner of execution, would have been worthy of any line of road in England, — even that of Holyhead. We now entered upon a country less elevated by nearly a thousand feet, and consisting of granite. With the change of rock, the vegetation improved ; the trees were both finer, and stood further apart ; and the pasture between them was a little greener, and more plentiful. At Hassan's Walls, I left the high road, and made a short detour to a farm called Walerawang ; to the superintendent of which, I had a letter of introduction from the owner in Sydney. Mr. Browne had the kindness to ask me to stay the ensuing day, which I had much pleasure in doing. This place offers an example of one of the large farming, or rather sheep-grazing, establishments of the colony. Cattle and horses are, however, in this case, rather more numerous than usual, owing to some of the valleys being swampy, and producing a coarser pasture. The sheep were 15,000 in number, of which the greater part were feeding under the care of different shepherds, on unoccupied ground, at the distance of more than a hundred miles, and beyond the limits of the colony. Mr. Browne had just finished, this day, the last of the shearing of seven thousand sheep ; the rest being sheared in another place. I beheve the profit of the average produce of wool from 15,000 sheep, would be more than 5000/. sterling. Two or three flat pieces of ground near the house were cleared and cultivated with corn, which the harvest men were now reajiing: but no more wheat is sown than sufficient for the annual support of the labourers employed on the establishment. The usual number of assigned convict servants here is about