Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/253

 AND EXPLORATION. H9 Here Captain Hunter found the height of the opposite shore 1789 to be two hundred and fifty feet perpendicular above the ^^'^ level of the river, which was thirty fathoms wide at that point. Passing next day into the second southern branch of the river they found deeper water, and rowed for thirteen or fourteen miles before camping for the night ; but the country RouRh around them " wore a very unpromising aspect, being either ^^ high rooky shores or low marshy points/' On the following day they went up about fourteen miles, the banks of the river being low and covered with trees which they called pine-trees, from the resemblance of its leaf to that of the European pine. The banks at this part of the river had the appearance of being ploughed up, "as if a vast herd of swine had been living on them.'' When they went on shore to examine the ground they found '' the wild yam in con- ymd siderable quantities, but in general very small, not larger ^"^ than a walnut." The natives had done the ploughing. While the boats were passing through a reach of the river, the great range of mountains, of which they had caught The Blue distant glimpses on former occasions, seemed suddenly quite °"° close to theto — as if a veil of clouds had rolled away in a moment. Phillip, generally happy in his selection of names, called them the Blue Mountains.* No doubt he began to realise, while gazing at the stupendous masses of rock split up into numberless gorges densely covered with timber, how difficult a task lay before the man who should venture to explore them. But his present purpose was not to force a The passage, like another Hannibal, through the Alpine range before him, but to trace the river he had found to its source, and ascertain as far as possible how far the neighbouring country would serve the pressing needs of the settlement. After passing the night at the foot of a hill, they con- tinued their voyage up the river at daybreak on the following Digitized byCjOOQlC Sphinx.
 * "Called by the Qovemor the Blae Monntaiiis." — Hunter, p. 150.