Page:Descriptive account of the panoramic view, &c. of King George's Sound, and the adjacent country.djvu/5

 5 Range (in the panoramic view bounding the horizon, upon the extreme right,) consists of a succession of low hills, covered with dense forests of mahoganies, banksias, and other trees peculiar to Australian scenery; it is intersected by two small rivers, the Napier and King, and is well watered by springs and rivulets. Between these mountains, and those immediately beyond, a broad, wild valley, called the Vale of Kalgan, intervenes; through this runs the channel of a river, the water of which is brackish in summer. The most distant mountains, the Toolbrunnup, rise abruptly from an immense plain; the highest is estimated at three thousand feet, and the view from its summit is extensive and singular;—towards the coast the sea is distinctly visible at a distance of fifty miles; and towards the interior, small lakes, thick woods, and open patches, reach to the utmost bound of sight, almost without a rise. The range running along in a succession of high peaks and precipitous rocks, averages only five miles in breadth, which it extends longitudinally upwards of forty. Beyond this no European has at present penetrated; and, in fact, if the reports of the natives are true, there is little inducement for exploring; water, they say, in those districts, is so scarce, that the tribes who inhabit them are obliged to quench their thirst by making an incision with their hatchets into the bark of the white gum-tree. The view from the summit certainly seemed to confirm this account. To the westward the country is