Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/559

Rh in the west and north. An American visitor once said that Western Australia had been run through an hour-glass, alluding to the great number of sandy regions in the limits of the territory. Of course we have considerable areas of desert, but his remark is unfair as a general description. We could support a large population, and when our advantages become better known we shall have it too.

"I ought to tell you that some of our most fertile land in the south-west is unfit for pasturing sheep and cattle, owing to the poison-plants that abound there. There are several of these plants, four of them being well known and easily recognized. The most common is the York-road plant, a low scrubby bush with narrow green leaves and a white stem. Sheep feed eagerly upon it, swell to a great size, and live only a few hours; at certain times when the plant is full of sap a single mouthful is sufficient to kill a full-grown sheep. The plant will also kill horned cattle, but does not affect horses, or only slightly. As you go to the north you cease to find this dangerous plant, and the pastures there are as good for sheep as those of Victoria or New South Wales.