George Smyth Baden-Powell

New Homes for the Old Country; A Personal Experience of the Political and Domestic Life, the Industries, and the Natural History of Australia and New Zealand George Smyth Baden-Powell

Publisher Marketing: Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: II.] -V YDNE Y HARBO UR. this time the height of these grand and portentous cliffs was aptly illustrated by the appearance of a mighty tug, rolling out to meet us, appearing a mere pigmy, all but lost in the gloom and overshadowing of the gigantic portals. Breakfast that day lost all ceremony, and each, as soon as the cravings of hunger were quieted, PLAN OF PORT JACKSON. made a rush on deck. The sight presented was, indeed, one not to he missed. On either hand, towering over us, were these magnificent faces of rock, appearing to us, who had been near nothing since leaving Plymouth breakwater, almost within biscuit shot. This was our introduction to the harbour of Port Jackson. Our present course appeared blocked by the rock)face of the Middle Head, jutting out into the blue waters, and covered as to its top with a confused mass of rocks, bushes, grass, and gum-trees, with their brownish-green foliage. Thus was the harbour apparently divided into two arms. To the right of the Head appeared long reaches of water; some ending in sandy bays glistening in the sun, and others leading round miniature capes to miles of beautiful reaches. To the left our tug was towing us round the South Head up another arm, apparently nearly parallel to the coast-line. Between us and the sea was high land; at its base a sandy beach, with a scattered village nestling up the sides of what much resembled moors, covered, as these heights were, with a low scrub, or brushwood. Every here and there the expanse was broken by the white walls of some villa; and along the summit, against the bright blue sky, the lighthouse, flag-staff, and three or four houses, stood out in bold relief. Turning our attention to our right, we found ourselves astonishingly close in to the shore, and so had our first pe...