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[Page 195]

in places some resemblance to some bits [of] Illawarra
and there are trees in it which are something
like trees, noble oaks 100 feet high and
4 to 6 feet in diameter, some of them
still vigorous and growing. Beech however
is the chief wood which we saw but we
saw comparatively little of the Forest as it
extends over 120 or 130 square miles.
Parts of it where the sandstone comes out
in rocky gullies & ravines, with heath
and scrubby growth, so much resembled
the barren rocky tracts in N.S. Wales
that it required little effort to imagine
oneself there. Dobie & Charlies are
greatly improved in appearance by their
five months cruise to the Crimea
& in the Mediterranean and both of them are quite
ruddy and stout. In short every old
Australian acquaintance to which you may
add me has become vastly heavier

[Cross-hatched writing]
since we were here.

God bless you all.

Ever your affecte. brother

Wm. Macarthur