Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/243

 AND EXPLORATION. 189 but the traveller nowadays is not obstraoted in tbat man- 1786 ner^ the swamps and marshes having long since disappeared ^f<>^ under the influence of drainasre and cultivation. The result Dndnaffo ... . »nd culti- ■ justifies the philosophic reflections indulged in on this Bub« vation. ject by the editor of Phillip's Voyage, on '^ the great im- provement which may be made by the industry of a civilised people in this country/'* Phillip made one or two other discoveries besides that of the lake on this occasion. When about fifteen miles from the coast he had '' a very fine view of the mountains in- land '' — by which he meant the celebrated range afterwards known as the Blue Mountains. Those to the north he The Blue Mountainfl. named the Carmarthen Hills, those to the south the Lans- downe, and one that rose up between them Eichmond Hill — after some political celebrities of the time. While gazing at the distant range an idea occurred to him which led to one of his most important discoveries. '^ From the rising of these mountains I did not doubt but that a large river TheUawkes- would be found " ; and in order to satisfy himself on that point he determined to make another exploration in a different direction. Accordingly, he set off again a week afterwards, and having First landed near the head of the harbour, tried to make his way reach the through the country before him straight to the mountains. This might be called the first of the many attempts to ex- plore the Blue Mountains made during a period of twenty- five years; for it was not until 1818 that the colonists succeeded in cutting a passage through them. Phillip had not gone far on his way before he was stopped by the scrub — ^which he called ^'a close cover*^ — and was obliged to return. On the following day a fresh start was made. By keeping along the banks of a small creek for about four miles the party managed to escape the scrub, and then came upon some unusually good country — '^ as fine as any I ever saw ^' Fine — the trees growing from twenty to forty feet apart from • Voyage, p. 98 ; post, p. 288. Digitized byCjOOQlC