nd the
river at Rose Hill is a creek of the harbour, which above high water mark
would not in England be called even a brook. Whence the Hawkesbury, the
only fresh water river known to exist in the country, derives its supplies,
would puzzle a transient observer. He sees nothing but torpid unmeaning
ponds (often stagnant and always still, unless agitated by heavy rains)
which communicate with it. Doubtless the springs which arise in Carmarthen
mountains may be said to constitute its source. To cultivate its banks
within many miles of the bed of the stream (except on some elevated
detached spots) will be found impracticable, unless some method be devised
of erecting a mound, sufficient to repel the encroachments of a torrent
which sometimes rises fifty feet above its ordinary level, inundating the
surrounding country in every direction.

The country between the Hawkesbury and Rose Hill is that which I have
hitherto spoken of. When the river is crossed, this prospect soon gives
place to a very different one. The green vales and moderate hills disappear
at the distance of about three miles from the river side, and from Knight
Hill, and Mount Twiss,* the limits which terminate our researches, nothing
but precipices, wilds and deserts, are to be seen. Even these steeps fail
to produce streams. The difficulty of penetrating this country, joined to
the dread of a sudden rise of the Hawkesbury, forbidding all return, has
hitherto prevented our reaching Carmarthen mountains.

[*Look at the Map. (There is no map accompanying this etext)]

Let the reader now cast his eye on the relative situation of Port Jackson.
He will see it cut off from communication with the northward by Broken Bay,
and with the southward by Botany Bay; and what is worse, the whole space
of intervening country yet explored, (except a narrow strip called the
Kangaroo Ground) in both directions, is so bad as to preclude cultivation.

The course of the Hawkesbury will next attract his attention. To the
southward of every part of Botany Bay we have traced this river; but how
much farther in that line it extends we know not. Hence its channel takes a
northerly direction, and finishes its course in Broken Bay, running at
the back of Port Jackson in such a manner as to form the latter into a
peninsula.

The principal question then remaining is, what is the distance between the
head of Botany Bay and the part of the Hawkesbury nearest to it? And is the
intermedia