104
Mr. Smythe attributes the mistakes in his observations to his not having a watch, and partly to the instruments with which he was furnished from his office, being out of order. He will, I trust, be able to give a satisfactory explanation to his Excellency. The country through which we passed to the double peaked mountain, which proved to be the Mount Mitchell of Dr. Wilson, and the Matchercrop of the natives. Dr. Wilson saw it when twenty miles off; to the eastward, is, in general, very hilly, and in tracts, may be called mountainous; the soil is of an excellent quality in many places. On the 6th and 9th for instance, before we came to the considerable rivers which I mention having crossed on those days, and after you have crossed them, you find a rich brown earth. On the 6th, it will be observed, the land was not much encumbered by timber, and neither was it on the 9th, immediately near to the river; but the latter was a much more hilly country; the grass and herbage, of an excellent description, was thick, and higher than the knee, nearly up to the summit of the hills; we thought that an immense number of stock might be kept there (near the banks of the rivers) in the driest months; but away from them I am not quite so clear, except the settler went to the expence of deepening some of the channels of the water course; but really, journeying as we did through the country, it is next to impossible to say what capabilities it has or has not. These were not the only days on which we passed over, for a considerable distance, what appeared to us to be fair land, but so thickly timbered, it would require great nerve in a settler, and great support from Government, to venture among them, with any hope (without great means) of success. The forest trees are,
