(*Footnote. See above.)
RIVER GROSE.
Some idea may be formed of the intricate character of the mountain ravines in that neighbourhood from the difficulties experienced by the surveyors in endeavouring to obtain access to Mount Hay.
EARLY ATTEMPTS TO TRACE IT UPWARDS.
Mr. Dixon, in an unsuccessful attempt, penetrated to the valley of the Grose, until then unvisited by any European; and when he at length emerged from ravines in which he had been bewildered four days, without reaching Mount Hay, he thanked God (to use his own words in an official letter) that he had found his way out of them. (See the accompanying View of the Grose; also a general view of the sandstone territory, in Volume 2 Plate 38.)
PLATE 10: INACCESSIBLE VALLEY OF THE RIVER GROSE.
Major T.L. Mitchell del. G. Barnard Lith. J. Graf Printer to Her Majesty.
Published by T. and W. Boone, London.
Mr. Govett was afterwards employed by me to make a detailed survey of the various ramifications of these ravines by tracing each in succession from the general line of road; and thus by a patient survey of the whole he ascertained at length the ridge connected with Mount Hay, and was the first to ascend it. Guided by Mr. Govett I was thus enabled to place my theodolite on that summit. I found the scenery immediately around it very wild, consisting of stupendous perpendicular cliffs, 3000 feet deep, at the foot of which the silvery line of the Grose meanders through a green valley into which neither the colonists nor their cattle have yet penetrated. Having looked into this valley from the summit of Tomah also in 1827, I was tempted soon after to endeavour to explore it by ascending the river from its junction with the Hawkesbury near Richmond; but I had not proceeded far in this attempt, accompanied by Major Lockyer and Mr. Dixon, when we were compelled to leave our horses and, soon after, to scramble on our hands and feet until, at length, even our quadrumanous progress was arrested in the bed of the river by round boulders which were as large as houses, and over or between which we found it impossible to proceed.
INTENDED TUNNEL.