Page:Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Volume 1 (2nd edition).djvu/27

Rh forest-trees, rivers, lakes, and ponds of good fresh water, in a!most every part of the country traversed by Dr. Wilson. He says, indeed, 'that the country is so well supplied with water, that those of his party who wished it enjoyed the luxury of a cold bath, at least once a day, one only excepted.' The surface travelled over consisted chiefly of fine plains and rich valleys, alternating with ridges clothed with shrubby plants, a great proportion of the former being capable of tillage, and the rest affording good pasturage for sheep and cattle. On the ranges of the loftier hills were clumps of forest-trees of large dimensions. On the most barren lands were various species of Banksia, stunted swamp oak, the grass-tree, and other plants similar to those on the same kind of soil in New South Wales. On the alluvial flats along the banks of the rivers and streamlets, the vegetation was most luxuriant. In the glens of the mountains, the blue gum, the turpentine, the box, and the apple-trees predominated, many of them measuring from twenty to thirty feet in girth, and from fifty to sixty of trunk, free from branches. The prevailing genus here, as in most parts of New South Wales, is the Eucalyptus, of which but few of species afford useful timber. The green wattle was but occasionally observed: it flourished most luxuriantly on the hills in the neighbourhood of Mount Lindsey. This mountain is described as a peak rising out of a ridge to the height of five or six thousand feet, terminated in a square of about thirty yards each side perfectly level, paved with minute particles of quartz, and having at each angle am immense block of granite. The extensive view from this mountain gave Dr. Wilson an excellent opportunity of crossing his former bearings round the whole horizon.

Out of the same range of hills, running nearly north and south, rise three other peaks, which he named Mounts Rose, Mitchell, and Frankland. Between this and a more easterly parallel range, Dr. Wilson is satisfied, from his own observations and from the accounts of the natives they fell in with, that a tract of good land will be found extending into the original intended limits, and now a part, of the Swan River Settlement; and he observes 'crediting the report of the natives, which, from the correctness of their description of the nature of the land to the eastward, and from their general intelligence, I am justified in doing, much excellent land may be found to the north-east, beyond the second range of hills. I do not,' he add, 'hesistate to say without fear of future contradiction, that the area passed over by us contained as much, if not more, land, fit for all rural purposes, as any potion of equal extent, at least as far as I know, in New South Wales.'

Numerous lagoons or lakes of fresh water occurred, to one of which we gave the name of Loch Katrine; it was from seven