The coast change and its effects have been referred to in order 

 that the frequent references to the clay land and the limestone 

 formation may be clearly understood. Until this line of demarca- 

 tion in the character of the soils of the territory lying between the 

 Darling range and the Indian ocean is fully appreciated, the 

 reader will have a difficulty in following clearly what has still to be 

 written about the characteristics of the south-western district, and 

 the diverse uses to which the different formations are best adapted. 

 Although the phrase, line of demarcation, has, for want of a better 

 one, been used to denote the separation of the limestone from the 

 clay country, the line is so sinuous and erratic in its course that the 

 word is almost misleading, for the two kinds of country run into 

 each other and not infrequently overlap. The south-west districts are 

 remarkable for the diversity of their soils, and this statement finds a 

 direct and early application when one gets a few miles out of Perth 

 and at the Canning discovers oneself in the clay country. But 

 one does not leave the limestone behind at this point ; on the 

 contrary, the South-western railway between Perth and Bunbury 

 will be found to cut it at several points much further inland, until 

 we come upon it again at Creaton, 15 miles from the coast. In 

 places the limestone formation disappears almost at the ocean's 

 edge, while in one place, below Manclurah, no limestone can be 

 found at all on a big stretch of country which has the sea for its 

 western boundary, although it is possible that an impregnation of 

 lime would be found in the soil. The reason why so much 

 emphasis is laid upon the uncertain or crooked course of the 

 boundaries of the two kinds of soils is that limestone is a main 

 ingredient in ensuring the success of special kinds of cultivation 

 which are highly recommended to be carried upon land where it is 

 found, and it would be a misfortune if a selector rashly took up a 

 block under the belief that it had a limestone bed, because it was 

 as near the coast as other land upon which the presence of this 

 strata had been proved by actual investigation ; in other words, 

 proximity to the ocean is not to be accepted as attesting the 

 possession of limestone, and distance from the coast is not to be 

 regarded as showing that a certain block is destitute, or nearly so, 

 of that constituent. 



After the fcrei^-ing explanation it will be realised that we 

 only speak in terms of the most general approximation in setting it 

 down that of the strip of country eighteen or twenty miles wide, 

 which intervenes between the Darling range and the sea, half of 

 ne formation, and the other of heavy clay or loam 

 land. Probably the statement is pretty i e irly correct if it is 

 understood to be applied in the same way that the same measure- 

 ments would be found in the hands of a man who inserted his 

 right and left fingers One between the other, and thus formed one 

 surface composed equally of different members. In this way the 



