Page:Extracts from the letters and journals of George Fletcher Moore.djvu/16

 x a bar of rocks, with only six feet at low water. This bar extends about three quarters of a mile; the water deepens four and six fathoms near the shore, and upwards of eight fathoms towards the centre, and thus continues for some miles.

The Swan River (so named by Vlaning in 1697, from the great number of black swans which he saw there) is navigable for boats as far as the tide flows, more than forty miles from the coast. The height of the mountains ranges from 1,000 to 1,500 feet—some are considerably higher—and Mount William elevates its rugged top three thousand feet above the level of the sea.

The distance across the range is from twenty-five to thirty miles, beyond which, fertile plains open to the view, beautifully wooded, and stretching towards the south-east as far as the eye can reach. The progress of further discovery towards the east has been extended fifty miles eastward of Perth across the mountains. The settlement of York has been established on a river called the Avon, the course of which is from south-east to north-west; but its source and termination are