red from the blighting winds which
occasionally have proved destructive to the crops elsewhere. The
mountain range by which Illawarra is shut in, partakes of the general
fertility of the neighbourhood below, and it is supposed, from its
eastern aspect, and mild climate, to offer spots favourable for the
cultivation of the vine. The timber of the district is very profitable,
when felled, and highly ornamental where it is left standing. Indeed,
the immense fern-trees, shooting up their rough stems, like large oars,
to the height of fifteen or twenty feet, and then suddenly putting forth
leaves in every direction, four or five feet in length, and exactly like
the leaf of the common fern,--the different kinds of palms rising to the
height of seventy or one hundred feet, and then forming large canopies
of leaves; the cedars, the undergrowth of wild vines, creeping plants
and shrubs, in rich abundance; all combine to remind the visitor of a
tropical climate, of a more _northern_, or as Englishmen would naturally
say, more _southern_, climate than that of Illawarra.

Respecting the Cow Pastures, the rural district, which, next to
Illawarra, is most deserving of notice in the county of Camden, little
further need be added to what has been already stated in another place.
Instead of _cow pastures_, however, nearly the whole of the 60,000 acres
of good land, which form this district, have now become _sheep farms_;
and the soil appears to be very suitable to the growth and perfection of
the last-named animal. Towards the southern and eastern parts of the cow
pastures are numerous streams, which retain water even in dry weather,
and which communicate with the Nepean River. There do not appear to
be any towns deserving of mention in the county of Camden, and its
population is small and rural: it is crossed in every direction by steep
ridges of hills, which almost always tower upwards like the roof of a
house, and where the country is mountainous, meet so close as to leave
only a narrow ravine betwixt them.

The adjoining county, which may be next noticed, is that of Argyle, an
inland district, not having any front whatever towards the ocean, and
lying to the south-westward of the county last described. Argyle is
about sixty miles in length, with an average breadth of thirty miles; it
is a lofty and broken region, and abounds in small rivulets and ponds,
containing water during the whole of the year. It is also well furnished
with t