Page:Journals of Several Expeditions Made in Western Australia.djvu/165

 of a mile, when, being on a declivity, inclining downwards to the west, I could trace the bed of French River at its foot, a very short way off, following apparently a S.W. by W. direction, for three miles, and afterwards a S. by W. one for a mile or farther. I continued N.E., E. and N.E., skirting the river, for a mile and a half, in the gently inclining slope, at first varied with sandy elevations, and rushy hollows, which appear to have been partly covered with water in the rainy season, and in some of which there are the dry channels of winter streamlets; then uniformly on a soil diversified with brownish gravel and good dark coloured earth, that has produced a very fine crop of grass now withered and beaten down. Granite, which is the prevailing rock, where the soil is good, is sometimes exposed, either in solid or bare blocks, or in fragments, so as to render the surface stoney, but not to prevent a tolerable covering of grass. The extent of grassy land is about three quarters by half a mile wide, and the marré, (red gum) trees being distant from each other, and also tall, open an agreeable prospect to the view.

After this, I went N.E. by N. half a mile, leaving the river, then N. by W. and N.W. by W. one mile over a sandy soil, with many stones of a hardened clayey nature already mentioned, producing some good sized mahogany trees, several stunted shrubs, to a stream, either a branch or the main body of the French River, small where a current existed, but wide where none was perceptible. The place is called Kâl-um-up by Mokare. According to him there is good ground to the N.E. three miles off, but without water in its vicinity, and his vague idea of distance decided my not going to look for it. My line of route now lay N. for one mile, and