Page:Journals of Several Expeditions Made in Western Australia.djvu/112

 well clothed with grass and timber, and maybe about eighteen hundred feet above the level of the sea. Here we found a sensible change in the temperature, which was much more cool than on the plains, and rendered climbing steep hills comparatively pleasing. Hence we descended S.S.W., and in less than half a mile came to the bed of a considerable winter stream, five or six yards wide, containing some pools of excellent water; small fish being found in these ponds at the very termination of the dry season, would appear to bespeak their being never totally dried up. Proceeding three miles farther to the S.S.W., over a steep but unbroken country, of the same description as before, we came to a broader valley than usual, in which were the dry beds of two winter torrents, winding through a soil much inferior to any we had as yet passed over; beyond it was some very good land, and to the eastward the country appeared rich and fertile among the mountains.

We now ascended the steep south-western hill of this range, and from its summit saw Point Casuarina, bearing N. 63° W. at the distance of sixteen or seventeen miles. The soil here is very sandy in places, and much intermixed with rocks and stones; there is, nevertheless, much good timber upon it, and a great quantity of banksia.

On its south side is situated the broad and rich valley of the Preston River, where we found several dry ponds and beds of water courses stretching to the westward. The Preston, at a mile from the deep southern shoulder of this hill, was found to have a width of seven or eight yards between banks of clay and rich loamy soil, where good water was met with in pools several yards in circumference, which, in the winter months, must form a stream of