Page:Descriptive account of the panoramic view, &c. of King George's Sound, and the adjacent country.djvu/11

 11 adorning their persons by painting and smearing is bewitching only to the native taste; the proportions are not much more round or graceful than those of the men; and most of the old women are perfectly hideous, and invariably the instigators of mischief and quarrel.

The small town on the shores of the inner harbour has been named Albany, and contains about one hundred inhabitants: the houses are low, and built of brick, mud, and wood, and thatched with rushes. The public buildings consist of a barrack, store, and wooden gaol. The soil in the neighbourhood is, with few exceptions, sandy, but the climate gives great luxuriance to the vegetable productions of the gardens and surrounding country. The tobacco-plant, which grows wild, has been cultivated with success; and as many English and tropical plants have lately been introduced, the colonists have every prospect of enjoying, in the course of a few years, the fruits and productions of almost every climate.

The cleared space to the left of the Sound is a garden belonging to Government, called Strawberry Hill: the flat immediately beyond, is a large plain, interspersed with small lakes, and wooded with clumps of Melaleuca and Banksia trees.

The Nuytsia, when covered, in summer, with its profusion of rich orange-coloured flowers, is by far the most ornamental tree in the Australian forests.