facilitated my gradual descent to the bottom of the valley, which was
broad, flat, thinly timbered with flooded-gum and apple-trees, densely
covered with grass, and, in the bed of the creek which passed through it,
well provided with reedy water-holes. Before I ventured to proceed with
my whole party, I determined to examine the country in advance, and
therefore followed up one of the branches of the main creek, in a
northerly direction. In proceeding, the silver-leaved Ironbark forest
soon ceased, and the valley became narrow and bounded by perpendicular
walls of sandstone, composed of coarse grains of quartz, rising out of
sandy slopes covered with Dogwood (Jacksonia) and spotted-gum. The rock
is in a state of rapid decomposition, with deep holes and caves inhabited
by rock-wallabies; and with abundance of nests of wasps, and wasp-like
Hymenoptera, attached to their walls, or fixed in the interstices of the
loose rock. Through a few gullies I succeeded in ascending a kind of
table-land, covered with a low scrub, in which the vegetation about
Sydney appeared in several of its most common forms. I then descended
into other valleys to the eastward, but all turned to the east and
south-east; and, after a long and patient investigation, I found no
opening through which we could pass with our bullocks. Although I
returned little satisfied with my ride, I had obtained much interesting
information as to the geological character of this singular country.




CHAPTER III



RUINED CASTLE CREEK--ZAMIA CREEK--BIGGE'S MOUNTAIN--ALLOWANCE OF FLOUR