Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/107

 of rich land was under cultivation at this squatting station, and was now covered with a luxuriant crop of maize. I here turned off from the creek, and crossed some thickly wooded, undulating forest land, well clothed with grass, and abundantly watered by chains of water-holes in brushy hollows. A few miles south of Dongai creek I commenced the ascent of the range dividing the basin of the MacLeay river from that of the Hastings. This range is of no great altitude here, for its elevation above the level of the sea does not exceed one thousand feet; but a few miles to the westward it increases in altitude, until the square-topped mountain near Cogo, which throws off the lateral ranges, forming the basin of the Wilson river on one side and that of Dongai creek on the other, is, I should suppose, four thousand feet above the sea.

On the lower slopes of this range, towards the MacLeay river, limestone frequently appears above the surface of the ground, whilst the summit is very stoney [sic], consisting of a soft kind of sandstone. After crossing this range I descended it on the south side, along a very stoney slope, grassy and heavily wooded, until I arrived at the first watercourse; I then rode for several miles over a monotonous succession of low thickly wooded ranges, and brushy hollows containing water-courses, or chains of water-holes, until I arrived at the Wilson river. The track here led me through the chain of rich cultivated farms bordering on this stream. The