ll in embryo. The most advantageous general
lines of direction should be ascertained for the roads--that the public
means may be applied with certainty to their substantial improvement by
removing obstructions and building bridges. On good roads there is
greater inducement to individuals to erect inns; and in well arranged
streets to build good houses--than where uncertainty as to the permanent
direction of the one, or irregularity in the plan or line of the other,
discourage all such undertakings.

It has been my duty to keep these objects in view as sole commissioner
for the division and appropriation of the territory of New South Wales;
and as head also of the department of roads and bridges I have, as far as
lay in my power, applied the means at my disposal, only to works of a
permanently useful character, guided as I have been in my judgment
respecting them by a general survey of the country.

THE MOUNTAIN ROAD.

My ride along the mountain road presented no object worth describing; but
I have frequently found that the most dreary road ceases to appear
monotonous or long after we have acquired a knowledge of the adjacent
country. The ideas of locality are no longer limited like our view by the
trees on each side. The least turn reminds us that we are passing some
antre vast, or lateral ridge, occupying a place in the map which thus
determines our position. In crossing these mountains an extensive
knowledge of the localities relieved the monotony of the road to me and,
being inseparable from it in my mind, the digressions in this part of my
journal will, after this explanation, perhaps appear less objectionable.

Twilight overtook me as I was giving directions to Subinspector Binning
for the completion of the pass at Mount Victoria; and I halted for the
night at a small inn at its foot.

April 2.

Although some heavy rain had fallen at Sydney and yesterday during my
ride across the mountains yet the grass in this valley, which at other
times had appeared green and abundant, was now parched and scanty. A
swampy hollow across which a long bridge had been erected was quite dry,
and the whole surface bore a brown and dusty aspect.

VALE OF CLYWD.

This lower country to which we had descended from Mount Victoria was
named by Governor Macquarie the Vale of Clywd from its supposed
resemblance to the valley of that name in Wales. It is enclosed by other
heights named Mount York and Mount Clarence, and is watered by