at once opening good roads throughout the country, has been, I believe,
one main cause of the early prosperity of this colony. I slept at
night at a very comfortable inn at Emu ferry, thirty-five miles from
Sydney, and near the ascent of the Blue Mountains. This line of road
is the most frequented, and has been the longest inhabited of any in
the colony. The whole land is enclosed with high railings, for the
farmers have not succeeded in rearing hedges. There are many
substantial houses and good cottages scattered about; but although
considerable pieces of land are under cultivation, the greater part yet
remains as when first discovered.
The extreme uniformity of the vegetation is the most remarkable feature
in the landscape of the greater part of New South Wales. Everywhere we
have an open woodland, the ground being partially covered with a very
thin pasture, with little appearance of verdure. The trees nearly all
belong to one family, and mostly have their leaves placed in a
vertical, instead of as in Europe, in a nearly horizontal position: the
foliage is scanty, and of a peculiar pale green tint, without any
gloss. Hence the woods appear light and shadowless: this, although a
loss of comfort to the traveller under the scorching rays of summer, is
of importance to the farmer, as it allows grass to grow where it
otherwise would not. The leaves are not shed periodically: this
character appears common to the entire southern hemisphere, namely,
South America, Australia, and the Cape of Good Hope. The inhabitants
of this hemisphere, and of the intertropical regions, thus lose perhaps
one of the most glorious, though to our eyes common, spectacles in the
world--the first bursting into full foliage of the leafless tree. They
may, however, say that we pay dearly for this by having the land
covered with mere naked skeletons for so many months. This is too true
but our senses thus acquire a keen relish for the exquisite green of
the spring, which the eyes of those living within the tropics, sated
during the long year with the gorgeous productions of those glowing
climates, can never experience. The greater number of the trees, with
the exception of some of the Blue-gums, do not attain a large size; but
they grow tall and tolerably straight, and stand well apart. The bark
of some of the Eucalypti falls annually, or hangs dead in long shreds
which swing about with the wind, and give to the woods a desolate and
untidy appearance. I cannot imagine a more complete contrast, in every
respect, than between the forests of Valdivia or Chiloe, and the woods
of Australia.
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