VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY OF SOUTHERN LANDS.

928

The whole county of Cumberland, as we have elfewhere faid, is environed by theinacceflible chain of Blue Mountains . From the moll precipitous part of thefe fmgularmountains, and directly weft of Broken Bay, the river Grofe, which commonly is buta trickling rivulet, falls in a long fucceffion of cafcades. On reaching Richmond Hill,a very remarkable fpot of which mention will be made, the Grofe becomes confoundedwith the Nepean ; and both thefe rivulets, at the point of jundlion, Iofe their name.The whole courfe of the Nepean is hitherto unknown ; on afcending it, however, youproceed :—firft, to the feet of the mountains, and along their fides, in which courfe itdefcribes a great curve to the parallel of Mount Hunter ; then towards the fouththrough very fertile meadows, which it frequently overflows ; and laftly, the mountainsthemfelves, from which it runs ; beyond which point nothing is known of its origin orextent. Were one to judge from its diminutive breadth at this point one fhould efteemthe fource of the river at hand, but the immenfity of the inundations produced by thewaters it occafionally brings down, fufBciently refutes this fuppofition, and proves that itfpririgs from a confiderable diftance within the mountains, and has very vaft ramifica-tions. Often, indeed, this river, apparently fo defpicable, fuddenly fwells ; its watersrife to a confiderable height; exceed their accuftomed barriers, and roll their waftefultorrents over the neighbouring fields, fpreading afar their ravage and exciting generalalarm. Hitherto ftrangers to thefe frightful floods, the Englilh who firft fettled on theHawkefbury river, experienced confiderable injury from them ; andeven fince they havefound no other means of avoiding the fpoliations of the floods than by conftruclingtheir dwellings at diftance from the dangerous banks of the river, or on eminencesabove the rife of its waters. Still, fpite of this double precaution, the farmers in theneighbourhood of the river are far from conceiving themfelves fecure from difafter; andhow, in fad!, can they reckon on always efcaping from inundations in which the watersrife above the common level of the river from twenty-five to thirty, forty, and evenfifty feet* ; inundations which bear no relation to the natural courfe of the feafons, andwhich have been known to be renewed even as often as eleven times in the year. Thefelaft circumftances indeed more particularly merit our enquiries and meditations.

Every body knows that in equatorial climates the year is divided into two chief fea-fons, the dry and the rainy, this laft correfponding to the epoch at which the funreaches the tropic from the equator, enveloped, as one may fay, in the vapours whichhis beams have raifed, and which incefiantly refolved into rains fall in torrents, and arereplaced by new aggregations of vapour fubjedt to like revolutions. At this epoch allthe rivers fwell and overflow their banks, extenfive lands are buried beneath 1 theirwaters, and even the air is filled with moift and dangerous haze. But now the fun re-trogrades towards the oppofite tropic, and carries in its fuite its vapours and mifts, itstorrents and humidity, and fuddenly, in the regions it leaves, the air becomes morepurified, the moiftened foil refumes its folidity, the rivers enter again their accuftomedbeds, and vegetation Ihews itfelf more rapid from the heat having diftended the vefiels,and mollified the texture of plants. The effects to w ; hich animals are liable areanalogous ; their relaxed fibres become more tenfe, epidemics ceafe, and the humanrace is again reftored at once to plenty and to health.

This rapid fketch of the progrefs of the feafons in equatorial countries equally fuitsthofe regions immediately bordering on them ; and, as high as 30 or 35 degrees of .latitude fouth, all the grand phenomena of meteorology more or lefs affedt the regulariucceflion of which I fpeak.

* In 1809 or 10 they roftfixty-five feet. Tr. From Port Jackfon Gazette.

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