Page:Journals of Several Expeditions Made in Western Australia.djvu/19

 Neither are the apparent disadvantages of position, climate, soil, and other drawbacks, urged against the settlement by its avowed enemies, or, by the artful cruelty of pretended friends, concealed from view. The origin of our information is above suspicion.

It seems uniformly conceded by all exploring parties, that the great tract between Swan River and King George's Sound, bounded by the Darling Mountains on the west, and by unknown regions on the east, presents an undulating surface, averaging about 600 feet above sea level. The soil varies much in quality; in some places sandy, in others a rich loam, with rocky pasture, amidst regions of granite and limestone. Occasionally extensive forests of noble timber encumber the surface, and sometimes single trees, in all the luxuriance and pride of natural beauty, so decorate the scene, that the landscape resembles the spacious park of some wealthy proprietor, rather than a sylvan solitude in a newly discovered world.

Rivers and rivulets are extremely numerous, and water is found in abundant supplies, notwithstanding the general prevalence hitherto of a contrary belief: 'tis true that few rivers of any magnitude have yet been traced. The courses of those that are yet known are short and rapid, and if they should