Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/105

 is nearly tropical, and rather too hot for wheat, which is apt to run to straw; maize and rice would, of course, flourish, and sugar and tobacco have been tried with success. The inland dividing Blue Mountains, are very rugged and lofty, rising to 6500 feet, but to the south-west of these mountains is the extensive range of pastoral districts, called Liverpool Plains. Port Macquarie is a bar harbour, into which vessels, drawing more than nine feet of water, cannot safely enter; there is good anchorage outside, and the shore is not dangerous. Not far from hence was recently discovered another river, navigable for vessels of 300 tons, to 57 miles from its mouth, and which falls into Tryal bay. The banks consisted of open pastoral forest, and alluvial untimbered plains, holding out the most flattering prospects to the settler."

Before proceeding to describe the other parts of the northern district, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay, I will here insert the journal of a ride from my tents, near the range dividing the MacLeay and Nambucca rivers, across the counties of Macquarie and Gloucester, to the river Hunter, being a distance of two hundred miles; as it will serve to give some idea of the nature of the country passed over.

Some affairs of importance having rendered my