Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/59

 ridge we were now on was so razor-backed as to be only a few feet wide, and then shelved down like the roof of a house to the glens, the grass on it was of the utmost luxuriance, and large black-butt and turpentine trees grew along its crest. Having tethered our horses, while the blacks were still toiling up the lateral ridge with the provisions, we struck a light, and soon established an immense fire in spite of the rain. When the blacks arrived we stripped some sheets of bark from the turpentine trees, and with the aid of a few boughs, soon erected a shelter from the rain. Having given the blacks some flour and tea, and made some hot rum and water, we stripped off our wet clothes, and enveloping ourselves in our blankets, soon felt quite comfortable. The night was very tempestuous, many a tree, uprooted by the wind, fell with a thundering crash down the precipitous ravines; whilst the trees over our heads rocked fearfully under the influence of the violent gusts which swept over that exposed mountain top. I frequently expected that our frail erection of bark and branches would be blown over the side of the range by the force of the wind.

March 9th.—Having dried our clothes as well as we could, we started soon after sun-rise, and travelled to the westward along the narrow ridge of the range on which we had passed the night, until it rose in a steep cone; we then turned to the north-west down a steep descending, lateral ridge, covered