and established a depot at a place known as Nattai, whence the waggon was
sent back to Sydney for provisions, Barallier, with the remainder of his
men and a native, pushing out westwards. After this preliminary
examination he returned to the depot, and made a fresh departure on the
22nd of November, and, continuing mostly directly westwards, he reached a
point (according to his chart) about one hundred and five miles due west
from Lake Illawarra. If this position is even approximately correct, he
must have been at the very source of the Lachlan River.

I give a few extracts from his diary, which was not even translated until
the Historical Records of New South Wales were collected by Mr. F.M.
Bladen. They refer to the crossing of the range.

"On the 24th of November, I followed the range of elevated mountains,
where I saw several kangaroos. This country is covered with meadows and
small hills, where trees grow a great distance apart...I resumed my
journey, following various directions to avoid obstacles, and at 4
o'clock I arrived on the top of a hill where I discovered that the
direction of the chain of mountains extended itself north-westerly to a
distance which I estimated to be about thirty miles, and which turned
abruptly at right angles. It formed a barrier nearly north and south,
which it was necessary to climb over...At 7 o'clock I arrived on the
summit of another hill, from where I noticed three openings: the first on
the right towards North 50 West; the other in front of me, and which
appeared very large, was west from me; and the third was South 35 West.

...This discovery gave me great hope, and the whole of the party appeared
quite pleased, thinking that we had surmounted all difficulties, and that
we were going to enter a plain, the apparent immensity of which gave
every promise of our being able to penetrate far into the interior of the