country...At six o'clock I found myself at a distance of about two miles
from the western passage...I was then only half-a-mile from the passage,
and I sent on two men in order to discover it, instructing them to ascend
the mountain to the north of this passage...I waited till 7 o'clock for
my two men, who related to me, that after passing the range which was in
front of us we would enter an immense plain, that from the height where
they were on the mountain, they had caught sight of only a few hills
standing here and there on this plain, and that the country in front of
them had the appearance of a meadow...At daybreak I left with two men to
verify myself the configuration of the ground, and to ascertain whether
the passage of the Blue Mountains had really been effected. I climbed the
chain of mountains north of us. When I had reached the middle of this
height the view of a plain as vast as the eye could reach confirmed to me
the report of the previous day...I discovered towards the west and at a
distance which I estimated to be forty miles, a range of mountains higher
than those we had passed...From where I was, I could not detect any
obstacle to the passage right to the foot of those mountains...After
having cut a cross of St. Andrew on a tree to indicate the terminus of my
second journey, I returned by the same route I had come."

Barallier concludes his diary by mentioning another projected expedition
over the mountains from Jervis Bay. But no record of such a journey has
ever come to light.

[Illustration. Statue of Gregory Blaxland, Lands Office, Sydney.]

[Map. Routes of Blaxland, Wentworth, and Lawson (1813); Evans (1813);
Oxley (1817, 1818, 1823); and Sturt (1828 and 1829).]

1.4. THE BLUE MOUNTAINS: BLAXLAND.