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GEOGRAPHICAL COLLECTIONS. 



Swan River Colony We are not disposed with the herd to cry up the 



success of this settlement in opposition to direct evidence, even though 

 government has been induced to sanction the scheme. We are by no means 

 clear, notwithstanding the gaudy pictures of this speculation, which are still 

 industriously disseminated through the daily press, that a job has not been 

 precipitately taken under government patronage ; and, until we are convinced 

 to the contrary, our opinion will be freely expressed. Our readers will 

 remember that in a late number we alluded to a letter from a settler to a 

 friend in Edinburgh, which had been communicated by Professor Jameson 

 to the Wernerian Society. We are now enabled to give the letter at length 

 from the Edinburgh Literary Journal, and shall only premise, that we have 

 reason to know that the writer is no discontented grumbler, but one who 

 speaks freely of facts as they are ; and that the document originally comes to 

 the knowledge of the public through a quarter which entitles it to some consi- 

 deration. It cannot be supposed that such astounding evidence would be 

 unadvisedly divulged upon dubious authority; nor do we believe that any 

 Other desire than that of letting the truth be known has led to its promul- 

 gation. It will be observed that much later information has been received 

 from the colony, but none which sufficiently negatives the conclusions to be 

 drawn from this letter. 



" When I last saw you in Edinburgh, you requested me to write you an 

 impartial account of this colony. I shall do so in this letter, in the hope 

 that others may not believe the trash which was published last spring 

 concerning it. I have the Quarterly Review, No. 78, before me, article 

 * Swan River Settlement,' to which I was referred at the Colonial Office^ 

 for the only authentic information. By running my eye over it as I go on, 

 I shall be able to point out some of the numerous inaccuracies with M'hich 

 k abounds. 



" In the first place, we have found the cHmate much hotter, for, instead of 

 the average being 72° and the extremes 84° and 59°, the glass has seldom 

 been below 80°, from that to 96°, 100°, and once 103°. This heat in 

 England would be insupportable, but the sea-breeze generally sets in after 

 ten in the forenoon, and renders the heat bearable. Next, mention is made 

 of an almost innumerable variety of grasses, and that, in consequence, tjiere 

 cannot be any deficiency in soil, heat, and moisture. Certainly, if the 

 country did abound with grasses, that conclusion might very justly be drawn, 

 but I have not seen any thing like grass on which stock would thrive. To 

 prove this, it will be sufficient to state, that the greater part of the stock 



brought out by Mr have perished from the want of proper food ; that 



working oxen, which, in a new colony, ought to be very valuable, are sent 

 to the butcher as soon as purchasers can be found for the meat, and that the 

 same fate attends sheep. As to rivulets, I have not yet seen one, or even 

 the dry bed of one. As to springs, I can only say, that I have with great 

 labour got water by cutting forty feet through solid rock. We have had 

 moderate rain about half a dozen times since the 15th December, when 

 we arrived. A kind of half salt water may be got by digging three or four 

 feet on the beach, and not much above high-water mark ; but many have 

 suffered severely from dysentery by drinking it. 



" The channel into Cockburn Sound, to say the best of it, is very intricate, 

 and, without a leading wind, dangerous for large vessels. The Sound is, I 

 believe, considered by naval men tolerably well protected, and safe enough. 

 Gage's Roads, off the entrance to Swan River, are particularly unsafe. 

 One ship was on shore about a fortnight ago, another broke her capstan 



