Page:The Coming Colony Mennell 1892.djvu/108

 XV.

with the help of the completed portions of the railway at either end, my buggy journey along the course of the inchoate "Midland" resolved itself into a south-easterly drive of a little over 200 miles from Dongara, which, like the far-flowing Greenough, also boasts its "flats," to Gingin. This was, however, quite enough for comfort, and quite enough to give me a good general idea of the quality of the country. At first our four-in-hand team was somewhat of the "scratch" order, but about midway the contractor's buggy met us, with a crack team, and the most skilled imaginable of bush Jehus. The first day's journey was mostly in the valley of the tortuous Irwin, which, like most of the rivers of Western Australia, is a mere storm-water channel, assuming sometimes the dimensions of a torrent during the winter rains, but becoming dry as a bone in summer, with here and there an occasional water-hole in its parched and deeply-scored bed to remind one of its winter destiny. The next day we were on the sand plains which intersect the whole of this rich loamy and red ironstone country, and which are really more "downs" than plains. Forty or fifty miles of "sand plain" might well damp the ardour of the most sturdy of would-be settlers, and enabled one to realise, as our team ploughed painfully through it, what sort of chance the old denizens on the adjacent good land had had of making farming remunerative, with from 40 to 80 miles of such cartage in front of them before they could get their produce to the nearest market. What with the present rain and the prospect of rail­way facilities in the near future, the latter all seemed cheerful