"they do not dig neither do they beg".
A detachment of black police trackers would find full employment in the broken country to the westward of the main range. We will return to the spring, and pursue the track to the eastward, through the valley for two miles, when a path through dense scrub now carries you to the summit of the western branch of the main range. Advancing to the edge of a limestone precipice on the eastern side, you look down upon the basin of the Cudgegong, and a vast extent of country beyond it; follow the track another mile and Bocaple stands before you, towering upwards in isolated grandeur amidst the pigmies which surround his base, and standing like a sentinel in advance of the chain of mountains in his rear which shut in the gold- bearing regions to the westward. Bocaple is only accessible on its western side, to which the path conducts you over a narrow causeway then you commence the ascent toiling upwards over a surface covered with loose basaltic pebbles as large as pumpkins, inter-mixed with fragments of a coarse grey ferruginous sandstone, at last you are upon the summit, when you find a plain of about 100 acres in extent, clothed with timber and long coarse grass, the descent on three sides is precipitous, but covered with a prolific vegetation. The mountain stands in a narrow basin, only connected with the range behind by the narrow causeway before noticed, the deep recess surrounding its base opens into ravines which carry its waters to the river. To the northward the waters of the Cudgegong, 3000 feet below, roll onwards to the Macquarie, and the low ranges beyond insensibly sink into the vast plain that stretches at the base of the Australian Cordilleras. To the north east the cleared lands at Daby, 25 miles distant, are distinctly visible, and to the north west, at the same distance, the smoke of Mudgee hangs over the low lands; to the eastward peaks and precipitous crests tower upwards in fantastic shapes from the great range, and glisten in the bright sunshine; while the range you have crossed stretches far to the southward, sinking at the gap of Aaron's Pass, and, rising again, connects with the great chain at Capertree; and still further to the southward the schistose plateau may be seen trending to the westward at the most easterly point of which an immense circular mountain, with its white crags, looks like a gigantic bastion. And to complete the circuit, spurs from the main chain taking a due westerly direction, sink into the valley at Richardson's Point, beyond which the blue outline of the table land may be again distinguished. To the northward a double range separates the waters of the Meroo from the Cudgegong, and carries its elevation to the banks of the Macquarie. We have now reached the north-east termination of the Western Gold Fields. Beyond this point a partial denudation may develop small patches of the gold bearing rocks, but nowhere to such an extent as to be worthy of attention, the auriferous rocks here dip under the carboniferous formations. Limestone at first appears, but as you advance towards the east coals, shales, and the whole series of sandstones become widely diffused. Coal is said to crop out in great abundance at Daby, and can be obtained at many places in sight of Bocaple. Coming down from the mountain we now keep the top of the main range, which opens out into a broad plateau for a few miles, when, passing three small farms whose combined cultivation might extend to about two acres, we re-ascend the Queen's Pinch, and descending to the schistose country make the best of our way back to Murray's, on the Meroo. <8th March.> -- It is generally supposed that a lead has been struck by some of the Celestials in the neighbourhood of Avisford, as they are flocking in from the north in large numbers, and gathering about Long Flat. Since my last communication some heavy nuggets are reported to have been found in Eagle Hawk Gulley, near the Devil's Hole, of which that noticed last week was only the precursor. The puddling machines have been unusually successful at Louisa Creek, and the miners there are generally doing well. A few days since, two men obtained £60 worth of gold from two buckets of wash dirt, at Maitland Bar, and about the same time an old man, named Murphy, procured 36 dwts. of gold with a tin dish in a few hours, near Richardson's Point. If some of the unemployed about Sydney, who in the Park"most do congregate"
would find their way out west, and disperse themselves over the gold-fields, they would find no necessity either for petitions or deputations, their proceedings have a rank say our of the English Chartist school of 1816, and it is very possible that some of the shining lights of that period have found their way to the antipodes, now that their occupation is gone in the old world. The tide has turned at Munindu -- the miners are again dispersing and the accounts from it are conflicting. A few claims have turned out well, but the rush -- was disproportioned to the payable ground, however, distress is unknown and employment depends upon individual inclination. If men would work on a gold-field for the same wages that they hire on a farm, thousands would be employed, and the poorest gold-field in the colony would remunerate the capitalist for his outlay. Even here we have our constitutional growlers, and the traders say that, although business is steady, it is not brisk. The Chinese are also gathering at Guntawong, and spreading over the banks of the Lower Cudjegong. Burendong is very quiet, but the Ironbark Ranges, near Stoney Creek, are now attracting some attention.