Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/54

 grass; we passed also through a long patch of plants in full bloom, resembling the English vetch.

We had a beautiful view from the summit we were now upon. To the westward, amidst a confused mass of mountains rising beyond mountains, covered with universal forest, the eye could trace the deep, narownarrow [sic] valleys full of brush, of the streams forming the Nambucca, curling into the deep mountain recesses. Looking towards the north-west, the direction in which I wished to proceed, tier beyond tier of mountains rose in serrated ridges of steep, high conical summits; the view in that direction being bounded by the dim, blue outline of a level crested range of surpassing altitude. Looking east, the eye embraced the dense forest and swamps on the Nambucca river, the silvery glare of its tranquil reaches, and the blue surface of the boundless Pacific Ocean, which was about twenty-five miles distant. To the south-east, the isolated position of Mount Yarra-Hapinni made it stand forth in bold relief; and as I had fixed the position of both Yarra-Hapinni, and Arakoon Hill, in my surveys I now, with a pocket compass, took the bearings of these hills, which of course would enable me to obtain a very rough approximation of the position on which I then stood. We descended from this range, along a narrow spur, with shelving gullies on each side, and after crossing two or three small water-courses running north-east, we halted at night-fall on a low grassy forest range. We had