of
Port Stephens, for twelve miles, to a place called Boorral, the furthest
point at which it is navigable, and where all goods are landed for the
Company's stations up the country. Mr. Ebsworth the treasurer of the
Company resides there in a charming cottage, almost covered with roses
and honeysuckle, and commanding two picturesque reaches of the Karuah.

About two miles within the entrance, the river winds between high and
steep banks, densely covered with creepers, acacias, and other vegetation
of a tropical character, all quite matted together, and hanging in
festoons, the ends of which are immersed in the water.

Mr. White, who had charge of the Company's stock, met me at Boorral, with
horses, and we were not long in reaching Stroud, about seven miles higher
up on the eastern bank of the river. It is the head-quarters of the
Company, and has quite the appearance of a truly English village, each
cottage having its neat little garden. I was very much pleased with the
whole arrangement of the place, as I strolled through it in the evening,
and was delighted to find the inhabitants of a remote part of Australia,
retaining such vivid recollection of tastes so characteristic of
Englishmen. Several experiments had been tried in clearing the land in
the neighbourhood of Stroud, one of which was by what they call ringing
the trees; that is to say, they cut off a large circular band of bark,
which, destroying the trees, renders them easier to be felled. But the
danger of this practice was, that in stormy weather they were blown down,
thereby endangering the lives of persons or stock passing. In the
thickets near Stroud, great numbers of the Lyre Bird are found. They
receive their names from the shape of their tails, which one could hardly
suppose so small a bird, having no other beauty, could possess.

TRIP UP THE COUNTRY.

At Mr. White's hospitable cottage, I met two gentlemen on their way to
the Hunter river, and as fortunately the route I proposed taking, lay in
that direction, we started together early the next morning. Crossing the
Karuah, our road for some distance lay over a rugged country, along a
winding path between very steep hills. Six miles West-South-West from
Stroud, we passed through a range trending North-West from two to three
thousand feet high, the debris from which enrich the flats of the Karuah
on its eastern, and the Williams river on its western side. Our guide
amused me by pointing to some of the