THE BLUE MOUNTAINS AND A BUSH PICNIC
We had heard much of the famous Blue
Mountains during our progress from
West Australia to New South Wales and were
anxious to visit them. In the early days they
formed an impenetrable barrier between Sydney
and the rich country beyond. Many vain and
unsuccessful attempts were made to cross these
labyrinthine ranges. Each successive line of
heights is so like another, its eucalyptus-covered
shoulders with the deep, blind gorges between,
for long baffled and defied all attempts at exploration.
The first of these efforts was undertaken
as early as 1793-4 by three naval officers; but it
was not till 1813, in the time of Governor
Macquarie, that some settlers interested in stock-breeding
won their way through. For a time,
like all their predecessors, they got entangled
in the bewildering network of gorges that make
travelling here so difficult, but at last, chancing
