CHAPTER XIX. AUSTRALIA Sydney - Excursion to Bathurst - Aspect
of the Woods - Party of Natives - Gradual Extinction of the
Aborigines - Infection generated by associated Men in health -
Blue Mountains - View of the grand gulf-like Valleys - Their
origin and formation - Bathurst, general civility of the Lower
Orders - State of Society - Van Diemen's Land - Hobart Town -
Aborigines all banished - Mount Wellington - King George's Sound
- Cheerless Aspect of the Country - Bald Head, calcareous casts
of branches of Trees - Party of Natives - Leave Australia.
JANUARY 12th, 1836. - Early in the morning a light air carried
us towards the entrance of Port Jackson. Instead of beholding a
verdant country, interspersed with fine houses, a straight line
of yellowish cliff brought to our minds the coast of Patagonia.
A solitary lighthouse, built of white stone, alone told us that
we were near a great and populous city. Having entered the
harbour, it appears fine and spacious, with cliff-formed shores
of horizontally strati