Account of Peron's Peninsula. 255 



but only had a smoky flavour, which was dissipated by stirring and 

 aerostating : this still was very imperfectly constructed. Capt. F. 

 says, " had it been complete, it would have produced 400 pints of 

 fresh water from salt water in twenty-four hours, a quantity suffi- 

 cient for the daily wants of 200 men." 



I am quite aware that the difficulty of perhaps having to work 

 through a deep stratum of sandstone, wiU be objected to my pro- 

 position of sinking wells; but I am not without experience on this 

 particular subject. At Bangalore I sunk a well through red earth 

 and pipe-clay to a depth of 30 feet, which work was done by no 

 more than two men. And, at Bellary, I had succeeded in sinking 

 a well through nothing but granite to the depth of 10 or 12 feet, 

 and should have perfected it, had I not been removed to another 

 part of India. 1 therefore know that an operation of this kind 

 only requires a determined and persevering mind ; neither does it 

 consume such a length of time as might be supposed. I be- 

 lieve that a well might be made near Point Guichenot in thirty 

 days, to the depth of as many feet, through solid sandstone the 

 whole way ; as well as that a tank or reservoir might be cut in the 

 rock or excavated in the soil, if dimensions sufficiently capacious to 

 save enough water, in one rainy season, to last a small community 

 till the return of the next. And the rubbish, during the opera- 

 tion, might be carried aside in baskets or barrows, as in India, in 

 default of better conveyances. 



Fish, turtle, eggs, &c. in abundance, would afford a constant 

 supply of fresh provisions, and that, too, of a nutritious quality, 

 until hogs, goats, and possibly buffaloes, (imported from India,) in- 

 creased sufficiently to afford a change of provisions. 



I have not the least doubt in my own mind, but that any kind 

 of vegetables, and especially our Indian sorts, (brinjauls, bandi- 

 kies, yams, &c.) would grow in the soil of the little valleys ; and 

 the party might also try the planting of several kinds of timber and 

 fruit trees ; and, besides avoiding a wasteful destruction of the 

 little wood at Point Guichenot, they might increase their stock of 

 timber by planting during the rainy season, selecting only such 

 wood as thrives best in the soil. It is astonishing how easily cut- 

 ings, stakes, and young trees, take root during the wet seasons, and 

 how speedily they grow in a warm climate. 



Although the most profuse waste of firewood has been going on 

 at that place by the natives, in the large fires they make to warm 

 themselves, without ever planting a single tree, yet nature fills up 

 the waste by this speedy growth. 



The anchoring grounds within the islands of Dirk Hartog, Doore, 

 &c. which shut in Shark's Bay, are safe, and well situated for ships 

 passing up and down the coast requiring occasional shelter ; in 

 fact, Capt. P. P. King says, that this bay affords the only safe an- 

 chorage on the whole bne of the west coast of Australia ; of course 

 exclusive of Cockburn Sound. Probably, on further examination 



