Page:The Coming Colony Mennell 1892.djvu/164

 met with, and at others strong dark soil deepening into rich black loam as it extends into the valleys below; all yielding, under fencing, clearing and ring barking, heavy crops of grass. These districts are well watered by brooklets, springs, and shallow sinking. The agricultural country on the banks or the flats of the Preston River differs only in character from the fact of having rather a larger stretch of level country along the banks of the river, and being perhaps more uniform in the general character of its soil. The average rainfall is­—Jayes, 26·95 inches, Bridgetown, 35·78; and the average cost of clearing from £3 to £ 15 per acre.

The Districts of Bunbury and Vasse are alike in some respects, but differing materially in others; both are seaport towns, and both the seat of considerable dairying operations. The Vasse may be described as a belt of rich swamp deposit placed behind the sea hills, and running in a narrow belt along the coast, from 10 to 15 miles on either side of the port, with ridges of limestone formation skirted by clay flats, and with low-lying sand and clay plains, covered generally by shrubs, wattle, and tuart, on the poorer land; and on the rich land growing flooded gum, tuart, and ti-tree.

Bunbury and its surroundings differ from that description materially, having rich alluvial swamp land to the right and left of the port, running north for many miles along the coast with ridges of limestone and clay plains, and backed up heavy deposits of black loamy soil at Dardanup, the Ferguson, the Collie, and Brunswick Rivers. All these districts are well watered by numerous rivers and watercourses, to wit:—the Rivers Vasse, Ludlow, Capel, Preston, Ferguson, Collie, Brunswick, and others of smaller note, while water is procured any where by sinking at depths varying from 6 feet to 20 feet. The rainfall at Dardanup is 40 inches; Bunbury, 34·64 inches; the Vasse, 36·67 inches. The cost of clearing at the Vasse averages about £3 to £8 per acre; at Bunbury from £3 to £14; Dardanup, Ferguson, and Brunswick from £3 to £8 per acre.

The District of Harvey may well be classed with that of the Bruns­ wick, Collie, and Dardanup, as the same character of land prevails, and the situation, as regards the Darling Range, identical. Pin­ jarrah and its surroundings, on the other hand, differs from other­ localities in the Southern Districts, being all more or less flat and open country, having along the banks of the Murray River stretches­ of reddish loam backed up by clayey and sandy plains. The timber­ is generally red gum, with wattle on the flats; ti-tree, banksia, and flooded gum on the plains. It is watered by the Murray River, and