within its bounds is barren and almost unknown, to maintain that
accuracy which we are accustomed to find in descriptions of the counties
or districts of our own well-defined and cultivated island. Yet, in
New South Wales, as in Great Britain, the territory is divided into
counties, and occasionally into parishes; and it may serve to give the
reader a general idea of the whole country, if each of these former
divisions is briefly noticed.

The county called Cumberland is the most populous and important,
although by no means the most fertile, in the whole province. It
contains the capital, Sydney, and the thriving towns of Paramatta,
Liverpool, Windsor, Richmond, &c.; so that in population it far exceeds
all the others. It is described as an undulating plain, extending from
north to south about fifty-three miles, and in breadth from the sea to
the base of the Blue Mountains, upwards of forty miles. The coast is
generally bold and rocky, and to the distance of a few miles inland the
soil is a poor sandstone, and the country looks bleak and barren;
further from the sea its appearance improves, an undulating country
extends itself to the width of about ten miles, and this district, where
it has been left in its natural state, has the appearance of a noble
forest, but, although partially cultivated, the soil still continues
poor, for it rests upon a foundation of sandstone. Beyond this, the soil
becomes better, the trees are less numerous, the herbage more luxuriant,
the scenery beautifully varied, the hills are generally more fertile
than the valleys, and the farms and cultivated spots are very numerous.
In the valleys of the Hawkesbury and Nepean rivers, the richness of the
soil is very great, and the plains are extensive. One great evil, the
scarcity of good water, has been very much felt in this country, but it
is expected that by boring, the deficiency may be supplied. The coast
of Cumberland is broken and indented by many creeks or inlets, the most
remarkable of which is the noble harbour of Port Jackson. The county of
Cumberland is said to contain about 900,000 acres, of which not more
than one-third is fit for cultivation, and all the good land in it has
been long since granted away. Unfortunately, that part of the country
which is most fertile and preferable, is the very part where scarcely
any natural springs are to be found, for, although these are abundant
on the coast, and in the sandstone country, beyond that li