APPROACH TO PERTH. 53 



tidal observations, before commenced, were more 

 diligently pursued. We found the greatest rise 

 only thirty-one inches, and here, as elsewhere on 

 the Australian coast, we observed the remarkable 

 phenomenon of only one tide in the twenty-four 

 hours ! Surveying operations were also entered on, 

 connecting Rottenest Island with the mainland; 

 the dangers which surround it, as well as those 

 which lie between its shores and the coast, were 

 discovered and laid down : this survey, of great 

 importance to the interests of shipping in these 

 waters, was ultimately completed on our subsequent 

 visits to Swan River. 



That arid appearance which first meets the 

 settler on his arrival, and to which allusion has 

 already been made, cannot but prove disheartening 

 to him : particularly if, as is generally the case, 

 his own sanguine expectations of a second Paradise 

 have been heightened by the interested descrip- 

 tions of land jobbers and emigration agents. How- 

 ever, when he ascends the river towards the capital, 

 this feeling of despondency will gradually wear 

 away ; its various windings bring, to his eager and 

 anxious eye, many a bright patch of park-like wood- 

 land ; while the river, expanding as he proceeds, 

 till the beautiful estuary of Melville water opens 

 out before him, becomes really a magnificent fea- 

 ture in the landscape ; and the boats, passing and 

 repassing upon its smooth and glassy bosom, give 

 the animation of industry, and suggest all the cheer- 



