228 Geographical Collections. 



and several strained their cables, dragged their anchors more or less, and 

 expected to be on shore. * But then there might be a ship canal into 

 Melville Water, or the bar at the mouth of the Swan might be got rid of.' 

 As to cutting a ship canal more than a quarter of a mile through solid rock, 

 and through a rocky cliff to begin with, from thirty to forty feet high, his 

 Excellency might as well talk of building a few Egyptian pyramids. Part 

 of the rocky bar at the entrance of the river might perhaps be m.ore easily 

 got rid of; but, unfortunately for that scheme, the channel for two or three 

 miles from the mouth is shallow and intricate. 



" Perhaps the most ridiculous part of Mr Eraser's report is that which 

 speaks of the peculiar advantages to be derived by settlers to this colony : 

 ♦ 1st, The evident superiority of soil ; 2d, The facility with which a farm 

 may be cultivated, the average number of trees not exceeding two to an 

 acre ; 3d, The abundance of springs ; and, 4th, The advantage of water 

 carriage.' As to the soil, I have been ten or twelve miles up the Swan, 

 and have not seen any thing but sand. A few miles beyond that point, I 

 hear, there is some good land near the banks ; but it does not extend on each 

 side more than a quarter or half mile. The navigation is tedious in the 

 extreme, on account of the numerous sand-banks ; and for boats, Melville 

 Water, about four miles from the mouth, and extending seven or eight, is 

 particularly dangerous, from frequent squalls, attended by heavy seas. The 

 country is so open, that for two trees you may fairly substitute 200, and not 

 take any account of rubbish and underwood. You will see, page 326, the 

 description of Garden Island ; now you would scarcely believe that the 

 officers and men of three ships of war, many of whom are living on shore, 

 have not even yet obtained a scanty supply of vegetables. Again, ' the 

 cattle abundant on Garden Island, were left amidst a profusion of grass.' 

 We were there five days, during which time I penetrated far into the 

 interior, and did not see one blade of nourishing grass. Nothing but the 

 eternal red sand, which was rendered so hot by the bunung sun, that I could 

 scarcely bear my hand in it. The situation, in a commercial point of view, 

 may be good, but we cannot, as we have not soil, grow the valuable produc- 

 tions enumerated by this writer of the Quarterly, or, at all events, not in 

 sufficient quantity for exportation. 



" Here I take leave of the Review, and shall merely state, that the grant I 

 have now contains 20,000 acres, and that, for fertility, I should give the 

 preference to the wildest moorland I have seen in Scotland or Wales, or the 

 worst part of the fens in Cambridgeshire. On the one, a few sheep and 

 cattle might find grass, while the other might be improved by draining. If, 

 in a tract of country of 20,000 acres, or I might as well write 200,000, there 

 should not be 200 acres of good land, or even tolerable land, would any man 

 call that an advantageous spot for establishing a colony? Now, I assure 

 you, I do not think that, taking the whole extent of the colony, there is one 

 acre in ten thousand good. If the land had been as good, or half as good, as 

 it was represented to be, I should have liked the life of a settler ; and I feel 

 certain that it would have answered. I am now writing in a very comfortable 

 room, in a well-built, convenient cottage, which I brought out with me. I 

 have no reason to fear the rains in winter, and I have an abundant supply of 

 provisions of every description, and some luxuries. I have tools of all 

 descriptions ; and my outfit was so complete, that I scarcely feel the want 

 of any necessary for the house. I have an excellent female servant, who is 

 attached to my wife, and a good steady set of labourers to begin with. My 

 stores are under lock and key, in a building substantially built and thatched, 

 twenty-four feet by twelve ; the men have huts ; and, if the soil had been 

 good, I should have had time this season to cultivate a few acres, or, at all 

 events, to commence a garden. As the case stands, however, I scarcely 

 know how to employ the men ; my seeds are rotting, provisions vanish, 

 wages go on, and no prospect of a return. The governor will, of course. 



