Page:The State and Position of Western Australia.djvu/73

 the difficulties of establishing himself in a new country, and provided an excellent home, has completed his comforts by marrying a lady in the colony, whose management of his extensive dairy, and of those departments which are under her immediate superintendence, is equally admirable with that of her husband in his peculiar avocations. The butter and cheese from Mrs. Bull’s dairy are in great request in the market.—The writer cannot take leave of this fine establishment and its owners without bearing his testimony to the hospitality which reigns there; nor can he omit to mention that, by the settlers in general, this virtue is practised to an extent that he has not seen surpassed among the various civilized and barbarous nations that it has been his lot to visit, while on foreign service, or in the course of somewhat extensive travels when on leave of absence, from his youth upwards.

In proceeding by water from Perth to the Canning, the traveller has to pass through that part of the estuary called Melville Water, from which he enters the river in question. A short distance above its mouth, there are flats similar to those in the Swan, that impede the navigation, and over which it is necessary, in the dry season, to shove the boats about half a mile. The Canning is much narrower than the Swan, and navigable a less distance; but the principal farms on its banks are accessible by its means. From Perth to the mouth of the Canning it is about five miles, and the principal locations are situated about six or seven miles up the stream.

By land there are two roads by which this district may be reached; one of them sets out from the point opposite Mount Eliza, where there is a horse-ferry. This is a