268 MEMOIR OF DR. HARVEY. 



it is expected to do after the rains. One sort of the poison- 

 bush affects the cows with blindness, another brings on rapid 

 inflammation. On the road we started several kangaroos, 

 often quite close. They stopped to look at us, and then hopped 

 away, leaping over the bushes in double-quick time. There 

 are very melancholy- voiced frogs here, regular howlers, and 

 others that make a noise like groaning, or as if inclined to be 

 sick in the stomach. The cockatoos are awful screamers, and 

 the crows drawl out a long plaintive whine, between the wail of 

 a child in distress, the bleating of a sheep, and the bray of an 

 ass; a compound discord of these three. The strange palm- 

 like rush-trees {Kingia) are very fine about here, and particularly 

 remarkable for the large mass of decayed leaves which cloak 

 the upper half of the trunk. Usually these are burnt off, the 

 fire rarely injuring the life of the trunk, but only blackening 

 it and destroying its leaves. New leaves, and generally 

 flowers, quickly spring out, but the cloak, which is the result 

 of several seasons, is never seen where fires are frequent. 

 Some few small birds chirp, especially after sunrise, but on the 

 whole the woods are very quiet, none of the shrill insect noises 

 which fill the American forests. Pigeons, and red and blue 

 parrots, start from the thick bushes with very noisy wings. 

 I have seen a bird soaring and fluttering like our skylark, but 

 he was a dummy. To say that the flowers have not any smell 

 is not true ; some have a very bad smell indeed. I have no 

 time to add more. The above was written last night, when I 

 had to stop, as sleep overpowered me at half-past ten. It left 

 me this morning at half-past two, so I got up at three, mended 

 my glove till four, wondering all the time how the original 

 seamstress could afford so many stitches, and sell the finished 

 article for a shilling — hard earning !" 



Leaving Albany on the 2nd of April, after a journey of eleven 

 days, Dr. Harvey arrived at Perth, Swan Eiver, where he met 

 with a kind reception from Mr. S., the colonial secretary. 



Passing over his bush journey, and the botanising it afforded, 

 we find our traveller " housed " in a tolerably comfortable inn 

 at Freemantle, the port of Perth. His first walks in this 

 neighbourhood presented to his notice many things too curious 

 and interesting to be omitted. In a ramble over the hills, 



