Page:Extracts from the letters and journals of George Fletcher Moore.djvu/61

 Rh of roads, when the colony is strong enough to make or require them. The expense and labour of conveying goods up the river, at present, is very great; boats in summer must be unloaded, and dragged over the flats, but above these the water is deep, and the navigation only occasionally impeded by fallen trees, which may easily be removed. Every settler should have a boat, and learn how to manage it.

Friday 19th.—I wrote the foregoing observations at the house of Captain Irwin, from whom I have received the greatest kindness. I have since been up the Canning River, about a mile above the navigable part, to look at some grants which are undisposed of. The country there is beautiful, covered or rather studded with magnificent trees, but the substratum is ironstone, the clay strongly impregnated with it, hard and unmanageable, and having very little grass on it, which (for immediate use) is the chief requisite. Besides, the river there is salt in summer, and fresh water it is difficult to find. The Canning (with this exception) is located up to the mountains. It is intended to build a town near its source, where there is some fine ground.

About Fremantle, where I am now sitting, in my tent, the land is mere sand; but we must not judge of this by similar-looking places at home, for all vegetables flourish on it, and cattle thrive on the herbage, scanty though it be.