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[Page 3]
upon the Margin of a Creek where the Banks are so low that after a heavy fall of rain they were certainly over flown, if this happen'd whilst the Crops were very young, twelve or eighteen inches above the ground, it did not destroy them but rather, prov'd of Service, But those Situations having several times prov'd dangerous to the lives of the Settlers, I have desird they may be abandon'd -
The different Views & Landscapes which appear from the Banks of this River are extrem'ly beautiful and wou'd much Amuse a good Painter - The Cause of the extraord'y Swellings of this River is clearly occasiond by its, Serpentine Shape & the Narrowness of its Bed, if you look at a Sketch of it, you will Observe, that the Stream downward must very much retarded in its progress to the Sea, by the Short & Sudden bending of its various reaches, to that the torrents of Water which after a heavy fall of rain must run down the Sides of the Neighbouring Mountains, raises the Water within the Banks of the River (which is but Narrow where our Settlements are so high as to overflow the Banks & cover much of the Cultivated ground - & where those banks are low, as upon the Creek, the dwelling houses of those Settlers have been Cover'd, but this Misfortune as I have before said has only happend to farms which have been chosen without attending to those Marks where are sufficiently Conspicuous, & clearly indicate those floods - The Soil here is luxuriant beyond most other places which we have cleard, probably not unlike the Banks of the Nile in Richness & no doubt from the Same Cause - Had the whole extend of the Banks of the Hawkesbury been like that part on which we have establishd some farms, Broken Bay would then have been the Place for our Head Quarters or Capital. Whilst I was here; I coud not resist the desire