Page:An Australian Parsonage.djvu/49

 no relays of horses can be procured en route; and, if performed by sea, the traveller must make up his mind to such accommodation as can be offered in one of the little sailing vessels which ply along the coast in fine weather, on board which (if he retains any appetite) he will probably help himself at dinner to chops served up in the frying-pan, and to potatoes either in the saucepan or in a wash-hand basin. In journeying to the south of the colony matters are a trifle less inconvenient, as the distance is shorter. The horrors of the voyage are curtailed, and the land journey of eleven days may even be reduced to five by travelling day and night in the cart which carries letters from Perth to meet the Peninsular and Oriental mail steamboat at Albany.

We found that those who advised our proceeding to Perth by the river had in no degree overrated its attractions. Generally speaking, the one great deficiency in Australian scenery is the want of water, but here at least this is not the case. For more than fifteen miles of its course the Swan resembles an arm of the sea rather than a river, and gives to the fine forest landscape through which it flows that charm which nothing else can supply. Its expanse of land-locked water would form one of the finest natural harbours in the world were it not for the bar at the river's mouth. One of the reaches, which reminded us of Milford Haven, might have held a large fleet, with room to spare. Alas, that whilst flies have found their way into amber and reels into bottles, where probably neither of the articles was wanted, no conjurer has yet arisen to discover some method of introducing merchant ships into these safe and tempting waters!