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in the dark. I got off my saddle with a slight groan, and was soon convinced by the dark dungeon-appearance of the place, we were not exactly on the Bath road. "How many quarts of corn shall I give your horses?" said a private of the 57th regiment, one of the road party under charge of a corporal usually stationed at this first stage of the Mountain road. I had previously heard that our horses would be very badly off going over the Mountains, but I was not prepared to hear of corn being sold by the quart. I thought I could not do better than refer the good-natured soldier to the horse himself, and requested he might have for his supper as much as he could eat. When the baggage came up, we got some slices of ham fried, and by the help of a bottle of port, some cigars, and brandy and water, from our own stock, we made a tolerable supper, and lay down in our clothes till daylight. Some dirty pork fat or dripping, in a bit of broken plate, was our only lamp, and just before the last flare, which we had delayed by a great deal of coaxing of the cotton, as long as possible, I discovered a large white tarantula, about the size of a dollar, just over my head, upon a piece of cotton that served as a curtain to the couch or bed, outside of which we lay. We had made up our minds to fleas and bugs in quantity, and were not disappointed, but had made no reckoning for any of the spider species; my companion therefore seized a fork to run this tarantula through, but, though an excellent shot in general, missed his aim, and the tarantula fell down upon the bed, and in the hurry to find him, the plate of fat was upset, and all was pitch dark in a moment. As an additional comforter to us, one of the soldiers in the adjoining room cried out, "Ah! there's a good many tarantalopes in that 'ere room." So what with the fleas, bugs, and the aforesaid tarantalopes, and the noise of two entire horses, who were fighting and kicking one another all night, loose in the paddock, we had not a wink of sleep, and were glad to jump out of our dungeon at the first peep of day. The horses, however, did not seem so glad to move as we did; a few quarts of corn, without grass or straw, does not do for a mountain journey; but it was only eighteen miles to the weather-boarded hut, where they would get another feed, and we intended to get breakfast. The morning was cool and cloudy, threatening rain-the road in many places very good, and in other places very bad; we were already in a different climate, and still ascending as we proceeded. It was easy to see the difficulties which had impeded the first party who had penetrated across the range, although to us it was comparatively straight and pleasant. Near the sixteen-mile tree, for the trees are marked all the way to Bathurst, is the spot where, some years ago, a gentleman of the name of O'Brien lost himself. It is supposed he left the ridge for the purpose of obtaining water for himself or horse, and going into the dell, met with some accident, and died, as he has never since been heard of. The horse was found some weeks afterwards, grazing on the mountain road with his saddle on. It is a melancholy spot-" all the evils of dereliction rush upon the thoughts." We imagine the dying unfortunate,

"Far from the track and blest abode of man ;
While round him, night, resistless, closes fast,
And every tempest howling o'er his head
Renders the savage wilderness more wild."

We now came to the ultima Thule of Mr. Caley, the botanist, where the heap of stones was left when he attempted to cross the mountains, and which has ever since been known by the name of " Caley's Repulse." The road is now in this spot remarkably good; and at a place called the twenty-mile hollow, which was the place that offered such insuperable difficulties to Mr. Caley, the road is now made by the prisoner gangs, as good as the most capricious taste could desire. The traveller will here find a pretty spring of excellent water; and, as it is the first handy place for twenty miles, he should halt and take a drink. The vegetation here becomes more dwarfish, and the tall iron-bark trees, of Springwood, are now changed for stunted eucaplyti of box and ash, and several varieties of the honeysuckle (Banksia integrifolia), and now and then the telopea or waratah. We had determined

to see the cataract of Bougainville, as some have called it, since the visit of that navigator, but usually known by its first name of Campbell's Cataract. It lies about two miles off the road, at the King's Table Land, which is nearly the highest point of the mountains, and for this reason can never, in the wettest weather, exhibit any large stream of water. We had some difficulty in getting down to the spot, and when there, found the place enveloped in one thick fog, from the fretting stream, which would seem, for the most part, to be converted into vapour as it falls. To call it a cataract is absurd; it would be easy to make as good a one with a tea-kettle; but the abyss is awful, into which the little stream falls down, and had it been called the buller of the Blue Mountains (or Bouilloire), for it is an immense caldron, or chasm of unknown depth, perhaps two thousand feet perpendicular, the name would have been more appropriate. But name or no name, it is a remarkable spot, such as a visitor will never forget, and will amply repay the trouble and wetting of going out of the road. We scrambled down to the green point, as the mist drove past us; and, as soon as it became clearer, one of our party fired three rounds from his double-barrelled gun, and with three cheers for the King, and a mouthful of mountain dew to drink his health, we returned to our horses, wet and black with the mossy ground and burnt scrubs. The weather-boarded hut was only two miles farther; and there we refreshed, at the highest inhabited spot of the Blue Mountains. It is a bleak and forbidding place, at the entrance of Jamison's Valley; the soil is a wet and rotten peat, that after the least shower will take a horse up to the girths at every step. In addition to the corporal's party stationed in this sterile region, we were surprised at finding an opposition shop newly opened, for the entertainment of travellers. What will not the spirit of English competition bring about! Here we were in one of the wildest spots in nature, thirty miles in the midst of the mountains of Australia, and nearly four thousand feet high; and yet the question arose, "Which house shall we go to?" We patronised the nearest, and found ourselves and horses, after a couple of hours, all the better for the rest.-Through Jamison's Valley to Pulpit Hill, across Blackheath to the top of Mount York, the road is very good. Pitt's Amphitheatre, on the left, presents a noble tier of precipices, of basaltic appearance, and of unknown depths below. All was vast, and wild, and dreary -fit for a poet

"Welcome, ye everlasting bills!

Temples of God, not made with hands!"

The rain kept off, although not a gleam of sunshine had visited us the whole day. Here and there on the road-side, we had seen the carcases of bullocks, that had died of starvation or fatigue, passing the mountain-sights which in the low country would have startled the mettle of our horses, but which they now looked upon without affright. The descent down Mount York did not surprise me, after so much that has been said about it. It was the new road, and comparatively easy. It is perfectly safe, but rather too narrow, as it will soon become cut up by water channels, after a winter's rain. It should be at least twice the present breadth, with a deep grooved gutter on the high side for the water, and a low parapet on the off-side, of solid stone-work, with numerous holes underneath, like scuppers in a ship's deck, to let the water off. We soon arrived at the bottom, where the ground was strewed with fallen trees, in great numbers, all regularly arranged by the road-side. As the country was by no means thinly timbered, I could not conceive what these trees were intended for. They all appeared more or less black by age; and it was only after my companions had rode up from the rear, that I understood how the trees came there. They put me in mind of the black stones at the foot of the hill in one of the Arabian tales, which, when sprinkled with the golden water, started up into horses and men. appears that all carts coming down the Big Hill, as this is called, must, ere they descend, cut down a tree at the top, to fix behind the dray, instead of locking the wheel. They were all of great weight and size, and I should have thought much too large for such a purpose. We were now in the vale

It

of Clwydd-a pretty grassy plain, of small extent, hemmed in on every side but one, with lofty mountains; and after a smart ride of two miles, along the valley, we arrived at Collett's inn, the Golden Fleece, the "rest and be thankful" of the Blue Mountains. We cannot pause at a better place.

X. Y. Z.

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THE periodical rains were over, the beautiful gardens round about Damascus were assuming every hour a more verdant appearance, and as the fervent rays fell upon the moist earth, the Spring seemed ready to leap alive out of the ground. Every thing attested the vivifying influence of the season. You could almost see the vegetation bursting into green life it became manifest that universal Nature was awaking as if from sleep, opening her eyes in the shape of innumerable flowers, and preparing for a great and joyous change. A poetical fancy might have imagined that the yet undeveloped germs of future beauty and enjoyment anticipated the vernal delights in store for them;-that the flowers in the blossom were dreaming of sunshine and rich odours; that the leaves in the bud, thrilling with pleasure as they waved to and fro in the soft breeze, longed to leap out of their close prisons into the sparkling air; that the roots in the ground yearned and stretched themselves upwards, proud beforehand of the superb colours, and graceful or stately forms which would arrest the eye of the passenger when they rose up out of their temporary graves in all their renovated loveliness. Bright and beautiful, and associated with all cheerful and delicious thoughts, is the infancy of vegetation. Never had the celebrated gardens of Alfadhel Alderamy, the great merchant, worn a more glorious appearance of promise: and yet they retained him not in the noble mansion which they decorated; they scarcely even occupied a place in his thoughts. As he passed pensively through them, he heard not the splashing of the numerous fountains with which they were adorned; he noticed not the alcoves and arbours; the fragrance wafted upon the breeze passed by him unheeded; his ear was deaf to the songs of the birds, some of which were already warbling amid the palms and acacias, while others were twittering in their dreams,-for as yet the sun had hardly lighted up the towers and mosques and minarets of Damascus, or thrown his golden bloom upon the numerous streams that surround it with perpetual music and fertility. For Alfadhel Alderamy the splendours of nature possessed no charms, the beauties of the most romantic city in the world were utterly lost to his eye. His thoughts, I might almost have said his senses, were with the great caravan which had departed few hours before for Aleppo, carrying with it no small portion of his fortune in the shape of diamonds and other precious stones. These he had entrusted to the care of his only son Yezid, who had received ample instructions how and where to dispose of them, and had sworn implicit obedience to his father's orders. He loved his son with no com

mon affection; but Yezid was young and giddy, and as it now seemed to his anxious father, scarcely competent to undertake so important a charge. This misgiving thought had prevented his closing his eyes during the whole night: not a moment's peace had he known since the caravan had departed, and after taking two or three disconsolate turns in his gardens, he determined to pursue it instantly, that he might accompany Yezid, and assume the care and management of his own precious jewels.

Alfadhel possessed a fleet mare, called in the language of Oriental exaggeration, the Outstripper of the wind. Perhaps there was little hyperbole in the name, for many an Arabian horse-dealer would seriously maintain that when she threw the foam from her mouth, she had been known to gallop out of sight before it could reach the ground. It is not impossible, however, if these men were like their European brethren, that they might occasionally deviate in some trifling degree from the extreme rigour of truth. At all events, the mare was one of surpassing fleetness, and Alfadhel having thrown himself upon her back, doubted not that he should soon overtake the caravan. His own anxiety being not less urgent than the fiery impatience of his barb, he suffered her to gallop forward for some hours with unchecked velocity, until by her exhaustion and panting the outstripper of the wind seemed indeed to have earned her name, and to have left behind her the very air which was required for her respiration. The rider, whose thoughts had gone after the caravan still faster than his barb, no sooner perceived her distress than he reined in the generous animal, and for the sake of the grateful shade, drew up in a lane overhung with wild figs and tamarinds, interspersed with kopals and gum trees. It was customary with the Arabs at this period, as it had been with the ancient Hebrews, to manufacture a species of sackcloth from the hair of camels, which they wore at funerals and upon other occasions of sorrow. The numerous camels of the caravan that had lately passed through this narrow defile, having left a portion of their hair on the hedges, the neighbouring peasants had sent their little children to gather it, and a troop of these half-naked gleaners, with black eyes and curly polls, were busily employed in collecting the spoil. Sun-burnt and tawny, their scanty discoloured rags harmonised well with the red-ochreous bank of earth up which they were climbing, while their glee, their clamours, and their agility, found a marked contrast in the person of a venerable austere-looking Dervise, who, having seated himself crosslegged at the bottom of the bank, retained his immovable position, blowing his horn whenever a traveller passed, and pointing to his turban upon the ground by way of soliciting charity. Alfadhel, having thrown a trifle into it, remained gazing upon the scene before him while his horse took breath, when he was startled by a tittering overhead, and upon looking up he beheld with amazement a group of longbearded brats, perched upon the bough of a tree, gibbering and mocking and mowing at him. His amazement at this inexplicable apparition was, probably visible in his countenance; for the urchins beneath, and the jnvenile grey-beards above, set up a simultaneous shout of laughter; whereat the bewilderment of Alfadhel was beginning to kindle into wrath, when the Dervise, propitiated by the alms he had received, informed him that the frolicksome urchins, after having satiated

their appetites with some wild honey which they had discovered, had smeared their chins with it, and by applying to them the camels' hair they had been sent to collect, had presently provided themselves with most reverend-looking beards.

"How merry!" exclaimed Alfadhel, who perhaps thought it necessary to moralise in talking to a Dervise-"how merry are these little thoughtless varlets, never dreaming that what they are now gathering in joy and laughter shall be worn in sorrow, and steeped in tears, perhaps even by themselves."

"If we may call the man a sorry baker," replied the Dervise," who should dislike sweet honey because it makes sour bread, so I hold him to be a sour philosopher who sighs at the sight of present happiness, lest it may become future bitterness and woe. Grown-up children with long beards sometimes employ themselves exactly like these youngsters, and gather and heap up in glee that which they shall wear in lamentation."

"Nay, did not our holy Prophet," resumed Alfadhel, "pass his whole life in collecting the materials of sackcloth, when he declared upon his death-bed that all his days had been sorrow and vexation ?"

"Let us not the less enjoy our happiness when it comes," resumed the Dervise, "but receive it as the earth does the refreshing showers, when she instantly sparkles in brighter colours, throws up a thousand grateful odours to heaven, and wears a countenance of gladness, as if drought and wintry weather were never to visit her again."

"It is pleasanter to hear the words of truth from the mouth of the wise," said Alfadhel, "than to catch the sound of the rivulet when crossing the parched wilderness."-But pleasant as it was, he seemed to think it still more delightful to overtake his jewels; wherefore, observing that his mare had in some degree recovered her breath, he resumed his journey, and passing through the defile, presently emerged into a vast plain. At its extremity, upon the very verge of the horizon, he could distinguish a great cloud of dust, which, interposing between the sun's rays and himself, rolled up to heaven like the red smoke of a conflagration. Not doubting that it was occasioned by the caravan of which he was in pursuit, he struck out of the high road into the wilderness on his right, trusting that the well-known speed and vigour of his horse would enable him to reach his object much sooner than if he followed the beaten track, which described a considerable circuit. Swiftly and gallantly did his noble steed bear him onwards, making way through the tangled overgrowth or the sterile champaign of the wilderness, as if she gathered up strength from the ground as she galloped over it; but Alfadhel soon discovered that he had widely miscalculated the distance, for though the dust that he was following still remained in sight, he plunged deeper and deeper into the waste without appearing to gain upon it, and his own strength, for in the hurry of his departure he had neglected to provide himself with sustenance of any kind, began to prove inadequate to the vehemence of his exertions. To add to his distress, the fierce rays of a Syrian sun darted incessantly upon his head, and he was tormented with an almost intolerable thirst. Still he pressed on, seeing no human being, nor even a single beast or bird in his progress, until, to his infinite amazement, he beheld, at some distance before him, what appeared to be an

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