FROM WIZARD PEAK. 389 



It was also now clear that the opinion expressed 

 at Swan River, regarding both the harbour and 

 the quality of the country was substantially correct. 



If this be the case, and there be water sufficient, of which there 

 is no reason to doubt, this may certainly turn out to be the finest 

 district for sheep pasture that this colony can possess." This 

 testimony, one would have thought, was much too vague to 

 justify the expression of any decided opinion as to the capabilities 

 of the country. Mr. Moore judged entirely from a distant view 

 with the naked eye : he could not discern the nature of the 

 trees, does not assert positively that the land was grassy, is 

 unable to speak with certainty as to the existence of sufficient 

 water, and ventures only to draw the conditional conclusion that 

 this district may turn out to be the finest the colony can pos- 

 sess. 



Mr. Bynoe, who accompanied me in my excursion over this 

 part of the continent, writes as follows respecting it : " There can 

 be but one opinion of the country in the vicinity of the supposed 

 Port Grey, namely, that it is comparatively sterile. All the soil 

 passed over, during our two days' journey, was of a sandy nature ; 

 and the gum-trees, particularly in the open country, were stunted 

 and gnarled. Isolated clumps, however, of a taller, straighter, 

 and smoother character, were met with in the dried water-courses. 

 Near Wizard Peak, the warran, or native yam seemed to grow 

 in great abundance, and to some considerable depth. There 

 the soil could be pretty well judged of ; and the deeper the holes 

 had been dug by the natives to obtain the root, the more pure 

 was the sand ; it was only the surface soil that held decayed 

 vegetable matter. 



" Twice during the trip, near the bases of cliffs, I saw a few 

 acres of alluvial deposit, two very circumscribed beds, which 

 were lost in the bottom of a water-course, sliding, as it were, 

 gradually under the sand. Near Moresby's Range, whero the 



