ssaries, left Mr. Blaxland's
farm at South Creek for the purpose of endeavouring to affect a passage
over the Blue Mountains, between the Western River* and the River
Grose...The distance travelled on this and subsequent days was computed
by time, the rate being estimated at about two miles per hour."

*[Footnote.] The Warragamba.

They camped at the foot of the ridge that was to witness the last
struggle between man and the Mountains. On the first day, they did three
miles and a half in a direction varying from south-west to
west-north-west, and that night obtained a little grass for the horses,
and some water in a rocky hole.

The heavy dews in the morning retarded any attempts at early departures,
as the thick wet brush rendered it difficult to drive the horses, so
that, as a rule, it was nine o'clock before they were able to strike
camp. The ridge, still favouring the direction of west and north-west, on
the third day they arrived at a tract of land, hilly, but with tolerable
grass on it. Here they found traces of a former white visitant in the
shape of a marked-tree line. Two miles from this point, they met with a
belt of brushwood so dense that for the first time they were forced to
alter their course; but the subordinate spurs on either side ending in
rocky precipices, they had to return and again confront the scrub. In
these circumstances, they made up their minds to rely upon axe and
tomahawk to win a way, and so next morning fell to work cutting a passage
for the horses. The ascent was also now becoming steep and rough, and on
this day some of the horses fell while struggling up with their loads.

The first day's work gained for them five miles, but at the end of their
toil they had to retrace their weary way back to the last night's camp.
The next day they cleared the track for only two miles further ahead; so
much time being wasted in walking backwards and forwards to the work.
There was no grass amongst the scrub that encompassed them, and when, on
Monday, they determined to move the camp equipage forward, they packed
the horses with as much cut-grass as they could put on them. This
amounted to, according to Lawson's diary, about two hundred pounds weight
for each horse, which, in addition to their ordinary loads, must have
been a very weighty packload for uphill work. However, according to
Blaxland, "they stood it well." They obtained no water for their animals
that night, and what they wanted for their