Journal of Gregory Blaxland.Pdf

conditions could be expected to make it. Tais is the sort of thing:— CROSSING THE BLUE “ Struck our Tent3 and Droceeded N by W 1-16. NW 1-16, NNW NW %, W 1-16, MOUNTAINS. ^ WSW 34. SSW V i, S by E 14, S by W H. ssw %. s %, w i mile, wsw u , ssw ♦ n w A NEGLECTED JOURNAL. That is part of the entry for May 24, giving the track they made from the lagoon near Wentworth Falls railway station to another (By ARTHUR JOSE.) swamp near Leura; and anyone who has fol lowed the old (Cox’s) road in that vicinity will A hundred and eight years ago to-day recognise the twists and turns of it. The dis Gregory Blaxland and his two friends stood tances, of course, are not exact—Lawson’s six on the clifl-edge at Mount York and saw the teenths of a mile are nearer SO yards than 110. good grass lands of Hartley Vale. No more But Blaxland gives the explanation; “The dis welcome or more important discovery was ever tance was computed by time, the rate being es made in Australia. And the discoverers knew timated at about two miles per hour," so that it—tut it appealed to each of them in a differ' a sixteenth meant about two minutes’ walk.', ent light. To Blaxland, the sheep-farmer, it Considering the rough method of computation, was a find of the approach to accuracy is remarkable. “forest or grass land sufficient in extent to A LOST M A P . s-ipport the stock of the colony for the next Bladen, es has been said, saw the value o'. thirty years.” this record, and had it plotted to scale On ai' Wentworth was chieSy interested in the ofacial map of the district. (Curiously enough, geography and botany of the new district. Law Frank Blaxland, a descendant of the explorer, son’s military training made him see was a draftsman in the Lands Office at this "the best-watered Country of any I have time, and to him the plotting was entrusted.) seen in this Colony . and no diffi The process, as Bladen described it to me, was culty in making a good Road to it; and, this; Lawson’s distances and directions were take if in a Political point of view, tf in set. out on a blank sheet of tracing paper, using: case of an Invasion it will be a safe Re tho scale of the official map—the distance be treat for the Inha’oitance with their Familys tween his extreme points was thus discovered and Stock. For this part of the Country is to be notably greater than that shown on the so formed by Nature that a few men. would map—arid his measurements were then ’ be able to defend the passes against a large proportionally, so as to make the distance* body.’* between extremes identical. Transferred to the map, the track thus obtained was found to In 1S13, we must remember, the news of Napo coincide very closely with the long winding leon's disaster in Russia had not yet reached ridge between the Grose and the Cox, in New South Wales; he war, still the dreaded accordance with the design formulated by enemy, and a raid by his ships on Sydney was land before the expedition started. well within the bounds of possibility. It is Where is that map now? It is nearly 1C probable, too. that Perom’s report of 1S02— years since I saw it. and I can find no one wUc "My opinion, and that of all those among has seen it since. It was made, anparently. it us who have more particularly concerned IMS. to accomtv“ nv a report on the in s e r tio n themselves with the organisation of this (as ungrammatical as it was incorrect) ■ iha' colony, is that it should be destroyed as a former Minister for Lands had attached quickly as possible” — the “Exi'lorers’ Tree’’ bevond Katoomba: b and Napoleon's 1S10 order for a raid on Port there is no trace of it in these papers ta-d A cortv was se™* t.n F’-wnMc Suttor fo Jackson were well known to the British Gov ernment, and therefore to Macquarie and his transmission to Mr. C. R. Blaxland, and ths mav 511 he in existence. Rot srvhow. til chief advisers. nrocegff' can 'be renewed. and shnnld he. However, the journey and its results have ( son’s tonmal is in the Mitchell L 'h rarv e: been described and re-described frequently of thfi trustees mietit well ar~nnero to have 1 late years, and need not be again narrated ; here. What docs seem to need re-stating is the ’ erTi+ed nnd used «jrain. Blazon used it. existence of an authoritative document on the «etvlc the em'oret-s- track, on-e for all. In- subject by which practically all still disputed - *«pd. *h« real need is of an edition eolla points can be settled onee for all. This is the t'nrA« ioyrnals. Lawson’s journal of the expedition, from which Meanwhile we m»v note how unmistakably t has been taken the quotation earlier in this Lawson entries indicstp the dav to dav article. It is not a new find, but merely a> ; tiors of the exolorers’ oamn, supplementing neglected one. G. B. Barton read it nearly 40 explaining Blaxland’s vaguer phrases. Bla land. for instance, tells that, o f’-er c.lirolvner years ago, but made no particular use of it. Frank Bladen—whose knowledge of early Aua- the big hill to King’? Tableland, the." struck off alone the ridge of it for a mile and n ha f 1 tralian history was unsurpassed—read it 20 years ago, and saw its special value, and did bafore they were 'topped hy the cliffs. But he use it; but his results have disappeared, and docs not make clear—and Lawson does—lhal no one since seems to have paid it any great nesrlv half their journey on the following (the 23rd) was a mere retracing of their stopf attention. Yet it is in its way fin'll. For it is not a narrative like Blaxland’s, full of inter- j to the mlin ridge: «nd Blaxlands somewhat esting but vague observations; it is a detailed doiudou* periods (written up lator in the “gi record of distances and directions, mile by English” of the time) are not half t o eemyn mile, point by po-int, from the Nepean to the ing as the cla,iu Lawson talk:- Cox, as accurate es anyone working in rugged “Mr. Blaxland, Wentworth and Self >?ft ^forest country_ under^ exceptionally difficult our Camp with a determination to get-''. -V eome part of this broken land, but ftunff it impracticable, in some clacts f; JOURNAL O F A TOUR OF DISCOVERY ACROSS THE BLUE MOUNTAINS, N E W SOUTH WALES, IN TH E Y E A R 1813, 1 B Y GREGORY BLAXLAND, W I T H , REFERENCES AND EXPLANATORY NOTES, M APS, ETC. BY FRANK WALKER (President Australian Historical Society). COPYRIGHT. 1913 "The Conquest of the Mountains" A wondrous feat within this record stands "A tale of conquest of our fertile lands” Performed "by men of courage hold Who in the far-off halycon days of old Boldly attacked,and carried hy assault Those fastnesses,which called a halt To many an early plan forlorn Achieved hy men of equal courage horn. They won. But in their steps on hill and plain, Stalked danger and disease-the twain. But never heeding,hopefully they went All with fatigue and cruel hardship spent. Until upon the thirty-first of May Mount Blaxland seemed to "block jrhe way. Then up its slopes their weary footsteps trend, And on its summit found their journeyTs end. 1913. F.Walker. , *^AASv**+aus6£as . Compass Bearings of Blaxland,Lawson & Wentworth’ s Track across the Mountains in 1 8 1 3 . ( From Li eu t. Laws on ’ s Journal) lay 12 th .1913 S.%. S.W.%. W.S.W.%. W.%.W.N.W.3g.N.by W.%.N.N.W.%. Encamped at head of g u lly . ( 2% m iles) -May 13 th . W.%. N.W.%. W.by S.%. N.W.3*. S.E 3g. H.N.W .^.E.E.%. N.W.^. (3% m ile s) -a.y 14th. Prospecting -ay 15th. d itto ay 16 t h. Hesting. .. ay 1 7 th . W.S.W.Jg. W.3g. N.W.%. W.N.Wjjj. W.3g. N.N.W.%. W.by N.%. S.Wjg. W.fc. W.^.SW.^. W.Jg. S .E .^ . W.S.W.%. S.W.2*. S.S.W .%. W.S.W.%. S.W.%. S.%. S.W.%. W.%. S.S.W.%. W .f.W .3*. ( 7^ m iles) -.'lay 16th . Prospecting. -'-ay 19th. W.S.W.3*. W .& W.by SJ4 . ( 1^4 miles) Narrow Pass met with here (Linden). "Here to found a large heap of stones piled up.no doubt i t was done by Dr Bass some years ago,as he rtnt in this direction,and did pile a heap of stow at the end of his journey" (=Caley’ s Repilse") Encamped at head of small Lagoon. I May 20th . S.E.%. S.L. S.S. S.S.W.C%. W.by S .1 / 8m. W .1 / 8M. N.W.%. S.W.%. W.H.W.1/8. N.N.W.1/8. N.Wjg. N.W.by W.1~4 . IT.F.W.^. W.N.W.%.

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