The day after our arrival, (22d,) I ranged about the farm, and was much pleased with its situation. To procure an extensive view, I ascended an elevated hill, distant about a mile from the house, and known by the name of “Mount Brace:” the view from it was extensive, and of much picturesque beauty.—Plains, (varied by wooded patches,) upon which herds of cattle grazed or reposed;—spots of cultivated land, green with the rising grain;—the distance terminating to the horizon in mountains of a greater or less degree of elevation and of varying forms,—peaked, rounded, or tabular, more or less densely wooded; and the Cudgegong river winding its course amidst the tranquil scene, produced, in the combination, a very pleasing landscape. The ascent to “Mount Brace” was rugged, and huge masses of sandstone, in which quartz pebbles were strongly imbedded, projected in several places as if about to be precipitated on the plains beneath; the _Liptomera acida_, _Exocarpus cupressiforme_, and the beautiful parasitical _Loranthus_ pended from an Eucalyptus were seen; and other flowering shrubs, among which some small and delicate plants (bearing pink flowers) of the _Orchideæ_ family were also profusely scattered about the declivities. I returned from my walk much gratified with the scenery. It appears far from being an uncommon circumstance for the females of the aboriginal tribes about this and other districts in the colony, when they experience much lingering suffering in labour, to threaten the life of the poor infant previous to birth; and when it takes place, keep their word by destroying it. One instance was mentioned to me as occurring at a station at “Cuttabaloo,” (a hundred and twenty miles from Dabee,) and near the Castlereagh or Big River; (and I have since known several similar occurrences;) the woman had, in this case, been two days suffering from a severe and lingering labour, during which, she often threatened the poor unborn infant with death on its coming into the world, using the expression of “pi, a, cobera! (break its head!”[43]) and, on its birth, the unfortunate baby was absolutely killed by its unnatural parent.[44] This has occurred in a number of instances when the children were half-castes, and seems to be almost an invariable custom among the Australian aborigines,—as it is among the New Zealanders and natives of the Polynesian Archipelago, to destroy the infants produced by intercourse with Europeans, unless the father resides constantly with the female, or else may be near them at the time, to prevent the commission of so horrid and unnatural an act.