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 travellers who had stopped for the same purpose as ourselves, but the presence of water had attracted no permanent inhabitants to the spot; and an obsolete brick-kiln which stood hard by added to its loneliness a look of desertion.

A few miles farther brought us to a place called the Six Mile Gulley, where the rains of the previous winter had left an abundant supply of water in a deep channel of granite, and where a cottage with a little farm-yard surrounded by a neatly-made staked fence, appeared amongst the trees. It was the first settled habitation, with the exception of the inns, that we had seen in a distance of fifty miles, for the huts of men who are sawing timber in the bush are almost as unlike permanent residences as are the tents of wandering Arabs. Here also, beneath an acacia of that kind familiarly named the "raspberry jam," because the perfume of the wood when freshly cut resembles that of the preserve, were clustered the only sheep that I had encountered on my journey. The truth is, that but a small proportion of land in this part of Western Australia is fit for sheep, on account of the excessive growth of poisonous plants. In some parts they cover the ground for miles and miles with deadly luxuriance, and it so happened that I had been travelling through one of the worst districts. Where the noxious vegetation is less abundant, the shepherds by dint of incessant care can prevent the sheep from eating it; and I have heard that the lambs of such ewes as have been taught to avoid the poisonous growth show less inclination than others to meddle with it. However, I cannot answer for the truth of this assertion.