higher elevation than any that had been observed elsewhere to the westward of the Blue Mountains. Having crossed this plain, and taken a north-easterly course, a poor barren country was entered, and no river was to be seen. The experience of next. day was ultimately a little more satisfactory, as a small stream in ponds was noticed, and afterwards a small spring of water, with some tolerable grass. As it was reckoned that they had now come upwards of an hundred miles from the Lachlan, in a north-east direction, without having succeeded in their object, and that they were near seventy miles north of Bathurst, and much about the same distance west of it, Mr. Oxley judged that the Macquarie must have taken at least a north-northwest course from the point to which it had last been traced by Mr. Evans; and calculating that their stock of provisions would last little more than a fortnight even at a diminished allowance, he was induced to alter his course to east, as most likely to reach that river, probably at a right angle, supposing it to run nearly as above stated. This course was commenced on August 14th, and proved of such highly increased interest, as to furnish us with a selection of passages, which will be seen to form a marked contrast to those we have already quoted.

"The smoke of several native fires were (was) seen in the range to the eastward, and some to the north-west. Proceeding about four miles farther to the eastward among those hills, we halted in a pretty valley, having a small run of water in it falling northerly. We had just pitched our tent, when, hearing the noise of the stone-hatchet made by a native in climbing a tree, we stole silently upon him, and surprised him just as he was about to descend; he did not perceive us until we were immediately under the tree; his terror and astonishment were extreme. We used every friendly motion in our power to induce him to descend, but in vain; he kept calling loudly, as we supposed for some of his companions to come to his assistance; in the meantime he threw down to us the game he had procured, (a ring-tailed opossum) making signs for us to take it up. In a short time another native came towards us, when the other descended from the tree. They trembled excessively, and, if the expression may be used, were absolutely intoxicated with fear, displayed in a thousand antic motions, convulsive laughing, and singular motions of the head. They were both youths not exceeding twenty years of age, of good countenance and figure, but most horribly marked by the skin and flesh being raised in long stripes all over the back and body; some of those stripes were full three quarters of an inch deep, and were so close together, that scarcely any of the original skin was to be seen between them. The man who had joined us had three or four small opossums and a snake, which he laid upon the ground, and offered us. We led them to our tent, where their surprise at every thing they saw clearly shewed that we were the first white men they had met with; they had, however, either heard of or seen tomahawks, for upon giving one to one of them, he clasped it to his breast, and demonstrated the greatest pleasure. After admiring it for some time, they discovered the broad arrow, with which it was marked on both sides, the impression of which exactly resembles that

marle by the foot of the emu; It amused them extremely, and they frequently pointed to it and the emu skins which we had with us. All this time they were paying great attention to the roasting of their opossums, and when they were scarcely warm through, they opene them, and taking out the fat of the entrails, presented it to us as the choicest morsel: on our declining to receive it, they ate it themselves, and again covered up the opossums in the hot ashes. When they were apparently well done, they laid them, the snake, and the things we had presented them with, on the ground, making signs that they wished to go; which, of course, we allowed them to do, together with their little store of provisions, and such things as we were able to spare them. The collection of words which we had made at the depot on the Lachlan, we found of no use, as they did not understand a single one.

August 15-A mile of gently rising ground brought us to the edge of a fine valley, in which was a chain of ponds connected by a small stream; alternate hills and valleys of the best description of pasture land; the soil, a rich, light, sand loam, continued until we halted, at the end of eleven miles, in a spacious well watered valley; where, to our great surprise, we found distinct marks of cattle tracks. From several of the hills over which our route led us, we had the most extensive and beautiful prospects; from thirty to forty miles round, from the north to south, the country was broken in irregular low hills thinly studded with small timber, and covered with grass; the whole landscape within the compass of our view was clear and open, resembling diversified pleasure grounds irregularly laid out and planted. The animation of the whole scenery was greatly encreased by the smoke of the native fires arising in every quarter, distinctly marking that we were in a country which afforded them ample means of subsistence; far different from the low deserts and morasses to the south-west. The tops of the hills were generally stony, (granite of different degrees and qualities) but the broom grass grew strongly and abundantly in the interstices. We never descended a valley without finding it well watered, and although the soil and character of the country rendered it fit for all agricultural purposes, yet I think, froin its general clearness from brush or underwood of any kind, that such tracts must be peculiarly adapted for sheep-grazing.

Nine of the natives who had joined us on the road, were entirely unarmed, and there was but one mogo or stone hatchet among them. The greater part of them had either seen or heard of white men, as they were neither alarmed nor astonished at what they saw. Their frequent pointing to the south-east, (the direction of Bathurst,) induced us to believe, that they thought we were going there, a conjecture which we did all in our power to confirm. They appeared a harmless, inoffensive race of people, extremely cautious of giving offence, and never touching any thing until they had first by signs obtained permission.

"August 16.-The same fine grazing country continued over irregular hills and valleys for about four miles.-In the north-east, a beautiful range of hills stretching north and south, bounded at a distance of about eight miles, the fine extensive valley before us: Under those hills, we would fain have found the Macquarie, fancying that we could distinguish the haze arising from water.-Desirous of ascertaining if our conjectures were well founded in respect to the river, we altered our course, which was east, to north-east. A finer or more fertile country than that we passed through for about four miles and a-half cannot be imagined; the soil, a light brown, sandy loam, covered with broom grass, from four to five feet high. After travelling the above distance, we most unexpectedly came upon a stream, which, from its high grassy banks and rocky bottom, we were obliged to conclude must be the river we were in search of; but so diminished in magnitude,

that the motion of the water connecting the long chains of reedy ponds, was so slow as scarcely to entitle it to the appellation of a living stream. It was so much smaller than it was at Bathurst, even after the great drought of 1815, that after going up it three or four miles, I began to entertain great doubts of its being the same, hoping that it might be one of the channels which must convey the waters from the high ranges of hills, lying nearly midway between the Lachlan and the Macquarie river.

“August 17.—The general appearance of the country southerly, made me still adhere to the opinion I entertained, that the stream along which we were travelling, would prove to derive its source from a very lofty range in this direction; whilst the Macquarie would be found still farther to the eastward, in which quarter I must have deceived myself greatly, if we do not find a stream superior to the present; and my hopes in that respect are much strengthened, when I consider that we are not above fifty miles in a straight line from the spot where Mr. Evans left the Macquarie, a strong and powerful stream, and that too in a season as long and even longer dry than the present."

Impressed with these hopes, Mr. Oxley resolved to continue his course easterly, until he should have nearly reached the meridian of Bathurst, when he would either realize them, or decide the question, in the negative, as to any considerable rivers rising in the interior of this extraordinary region. The country passed during the following day's journey, was very like what he had previously gone through; but, in addition to its excellencies, he met with several pieces of limestone,-a great desideratum in New South Wales,-which proved to be of good quality. He halted in a glen, named by him Glenfinlass, described as beautifully romantic, and having at its bottom a fine stream of pure water, the course of which, being north-easterly, encouraged the belief that he would be rewarded by discovering a nobler object in an adjoining valley.

" August 19.-Full of the hopes entertained yesterday, at half-past eight o'clock, we pursued our course down Glenfinlass. A mile and a half brought us into the valley which we had seen on our first descending into the glen. Imagination cannot fancy any thing more beautifully picturesque than the scene which burst upon us. The breadth of the valley to the base of the opposite gently-rising hills, was between three and four miles, studded with fine trees, upon a soil which for richness can nowhere be excelled; its extent, north and south, we could not see: to the west it was bounded by the lofty rocky ranges by which we had entered it; this was covered to the summit by cypresses and acacia in full bloom; a few trees of the sterculia heterophylla, with their bright green foliage, gave additional beauty to the scene. In the centre of this charming valley ran a strong and beautiful stream, its bright transparent waters dashing over a gravelly bottom, intermingled with large stones, forming at short intervals considerable pools, in which the rays of the sun were reflected with a brilliancy equal to that of the most polished mirror. I should have been well contented to have found this to be the Macquarie river, and at first conceived it to be so. Under this impression, I intended stopping upon its banks for the remainder of the day, and then proceeding up the stream southerly. Whilst we were waiting for the horses to come up, we crossed the stream, and, wishing to see as much of the country on its banks northerly as possible, I proceeded

down the stream, and had scarcely rode a mile, when I was no less astonished than delighted to find that it joined a very fine river coming from the east-south-east, from among the chain of low grassy hills, bounding the east side of the valley in which we were. This then was certainly the longsought Macquarie, the sight of which amply repaid us for all our former disappointments. Different in every respect from the Lachlan, it here formed a river equal to the Hawkesbury at Windsor, and in many parts as wide as the Nepean at Emu Plains. It is at least four times larger than it is at Bathurst, even in a favourable season. The river running through the valley was named Bell's River, in compliment to Brevet-Major Bell of the 48th regiment; the valley, Wellington Valley; and the stream on which we halted on Sunday, Molle's Rivulet."

Reduced as his provisions now were, Mr. Oxley could not resist the temptation of halting for a short time in this delightful country, in order to ascertain its precise situation, and to examine its various beauties. He found himself accordingly to be in Lat. 32° 32′ 45′′ S., and Long. 148° 51' 30" E.; and his descriptions are, if possible, fully more satisfactory and glowing than the pictures already exhibited-not forgetting the greatest abundance and various species of limestone of the best quality, lots of unusually fine timber, plenty of good grass, and springs of water. His journey towards Bathurst recommenced on the 22d August; the last allowance of provisions was distributed on the following day; but, having the aid of dogs, no fear of want was entertained. The necessarily irregular route of the 23d, and four following days, brought our travellers through a country of remarkable scenery and goodness. On the 28th, they obtained a view of Bathurst Plains, estimated at about 20 miles distance; and late in the evening of the next day, they received the hospitable congratulations of their friends at the new settlement, and almost forgot, in the joy of the moment, that nineteen weeks of fatigue and suffering had elapsed since they last quitted it.

ART. VI.-Essays and Sketches of Life and Character. By a Gentleman who has left his Lodgings. London, Longman & Co. 1820. Pp. 254. 12mo.

W

E were so much prejudiced in favour of these Essays, by what we had seen and heard, that we conceived we might be able to gratify several of our friends, by introducing them to their notice. The necessary duty of reading them, we confess, proved less agreeable than we had expected it to be, and has rather forcibly reminded us of a sentiment of that eccentric but sagacious writer, Dr. Thomas Brown, in his Pseudodoxia Epi,

VOL. IV. NO. v.

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demica: "Knowledge is made by oblivion; and to purchase a "clear and warrantable body of truth, we must forget and part "with much we know, our tender inquiries, taking up learning "at large, and together with true and assured notions, receiving "many wherein our reviewing judgments do find no satisfac tion." A silly, and, to all intents and purposes, a superfluous. piece of fiction, under the title of a preface, subscribed Joseph Skillett, informs us of the manner in which the papers thus denominated were obtained, namely, by searching the room of a decamped lodger; but it has no earthly relation to the book it self, and, what is worse, no imaginable power to produce inte rest either as to its contents or its author. Such inventions, besides being hackneyed beyond the possibility of exciting avail able emotion in this age of readers and critics, are in general so paltry and so puerile, as to bring discredit on the judgment, as well as the taste, of any man who thinks it expedient to employ them. Even the genius of the author of Waverley has found them an encumbrance on his fame. Let not humbler spirits hope to use them with impunity.

The essays are sixteen in number, on topics not peculiarly connected. We were prepared for Whiggery in them, and we had not the slightest intention of quarrelling with the gentleman, because it was his creed. We, too, occasionally speak about Pitt, and Fox, and the national debt, and the House of Commons, and Radical Reform; and when we do so, we use that constitutional and truly valuable liberty which, we trust, will ever be enjoyed by our countrymen, and which, we sincerely think, can only be endangered by the mad and widely-wasting licentiousness of those whom nothing short of physical force, pains and penalties, have hitherto been able to controul. It is not the man of literature and of refined education, who will lightly hazard the loss of such a privilege, by inflammatory declamation, however he may speculate on the points at issue between the great parties in our state. His habits have no affinity with the materials of revolution; and it never can be more than in fancy,-certainly not in will, that he calculates the momentum of a power which shall be able to break down the venerable bulwarks of his country's peace, and let in the hydra-headed monster of democracy. With him, therefore, we can have no contention beyond that of intellect and patriotism; and the issue of it must be an increased regard to the objects of our mutual admiration. He will know how to respect our prejudices; and we, on the other hand, are ready to make allowances for his mistaken enthusiasm. The individual before us, then, has our forgiveness as to his party sentiments;-albeit we take his leaving his lodgings unpaid, to be a