Page:Madras Journal of Literature and Science, series 1, volume 6 (1837).djvu/346

324 is sandstone; the water in the springs abundant and wholesome, in some places impregnated with iron. The principal streets are ninety-nine feet wide; one street runs about a mile in length, and is intersected at right angles by several others: the houses are built of brick and mortar and some of wood; they are placed on separate allotments, each ninety-nine feet wide and three hundred and ninety-six feet long, which are fenced in; a portion of the ground is generally converted into a garden; the gardens in front of the houses, and the large trees interspersed between, with the boats passing up and down the river, give the town a cheerful and picturesque appearance. The streets are not yet paved, but there is an agreeable walk along the bank of the river, and the rides about the town, along the bush roads to Guilford and Freemantle, are pleasant. Population three hundred.

It may be said of Perth as Hippocrates formerly said of towns similarly situated, well exposed to the sun and winds and abundantly supplied with good water (Deagre locis et aquis—Opera omnia, page 195), hæ minus a mutationibus temporum officiuntur: and diseases are less severe and less common here than in most other places.

I may also here mention Freemantle, the town second in importance, which is situated on the coast close to Gage's roads, on the southern bank of the Swan river, where it disembogues into the sea. The streets run at right angles, are sixty-six feet wide. The houses are built of a soft grit or calcarious sandstone, which hardens on exposure to the air, looks well, and is found in abundance in the neighbourhood. It is chiefly inhabited by merchants population about three hundred.

There are several other towns in progress, the most advanced of which is Guilford, situated about eight miles higher up the river than Perth, on a pleasant terrace, in an agreeable neighbourhood, where the soil is uniformly good.

These things being premised, I proceed to describe the most remarkable changes of the weather during the four years included in this notice.

Whenever the thermometer is mentioned, it is to be understood of a large mercurial one, graduated according to Fahrenheit's scale, kept in a proper place within doors (either in a wooden building or a thatched hut, with a southern aspect) except when I describe the sun rays, the intensity of which was measured by a smaller instrument of the same kind, hung out of doors, at some distance from the walls of the houses; no difference was observed between them, except that the mercury in the smallest was soonest affected by heat or cold, and