Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/485

remove large stones to enable them to pass along a ridge which had deep precipices at its sides. On the 19th they "began to ascend the second ridge of the mountains," and obtained a view of the settlements they had left behind them. Mount Banks bore N.W., Grose Head N.E., Prospect Hill E. by S.; the seven Hills E.N.E.; Windsor N.E. by E. "At a little distance from the spot at which they began the ascent they found a pyramidical heap of stones, the work evidently of some European. This pile they concluded to be the one erected by Mr. Bass, to mark the end of his journey," but it was afterwards attributed to Caley, and it become known as "Caley's Repulse." Congratulating themselves on having penetrated further than any other European, they proceeded by daily journeys of from three to five miles, and on the 28th they "contrived to get their horses down the mountain by cutting a small trench with a hoe, which kept them from slipping, where they again tasted fresh grass for the first time since they left the forest land on the other side of the mountain." They had passed the mountain barrier and left Mount York behind them. On Monday the 31st May, computing that they had travelled "fifty miles through the mountain," and being then in fine forest or grass land," they "conceived that they had sufficiently accomplished the design of their undertaking, and on the following day they bent their steps homewards." On the 6th June they "reached their homes, all in good health." The Sydney Gazette triumphantly recorded their "return from their trackless journey without the slightest injury," after discovering "a prodigious extent of fine level country."

In Nov. 1813 Macquarie despatched Mr. G. W. Evans, an Assistant-Surveyor, with five men, and two months' provisions, to follow the marked path of the volunteers. Following their track to the end, Evans continued his journey for twenty-one days more, and described the country he saw as "equal to every demand which this colony may have for extension of tillage and pasture lands for a century to come." He returned after an absence of seven weeks. In a Government Order (12th Feb. 1814) Macquarie, "in consideration of the importance of these discoveries, and calculating upon the effect they may have on the future