308 Account of the New Colony of Western Australia. [Oct. 



leeks, onions, radishes, carrots, nole-kole, parsnips, turnips, artichokes, 

 vegetable marrow, and cauliflower ; also cucumbers, pumpkins, water 

 cresses, tomatos, cayenne pepper, and musk melon, rock melon, and 

 water melon, in great plenty and perfection. The fruits now thriving 

 are the grape, fig, peach, almond, apple, pear, strawberry, sloe, plum, 

 several varieties ; olive, the common and white mulberry, pine apple, 

 plantain, sugar cane, Cape gooseberry ; besides these, there are several 

 others that will ripen here, which, in colder countries, never come to 

 perfection ; such as lemons, citrons, oranges ; and much praise is due 

 to that excellent botanist Mr. Drummond for being the first in succeed- 

 ing to raise these fruits. 



Of the animals I shall only mention such as are used for food, be- 

 ginning with the fish, which are abundant, cheap and good. Among 

 these are, king's fish ; snapper (sparus) ; mullet (mullus Malabar icus) ; 

 whiting (eferianus) skip-jack (gasterosteus saltatrix) ; flounder 

 (pleuronectes trichodactylus) ; herring (labrus) ; sting ray (ruja pas- 

 tenaca) ; cobler (platystacus) ; crawfish, crabs, shrimps, oysters, muscle, 

 &c. 



Horned cattle, sheep, goats and pigs furnish the inhabitants with 

 meat of prime quality, milk, butter and cheese. The pig was a most 

 useful animal ; it increased rapidly, and soon supplied fresh meat for 

 the settler, a matter of great importance in the early period of the co- 

 lony, in checking the scurvy ; which disease became very general 

 from the long continued use of salt meat. The domestic fowls are tur- 

 keys, ducks, geese, pigeons, and the common fowl. 



In the words kangaroo (macropus major) brush kangaroo (macropus 

 elegans), bandicoot and opossum (petaurus), were tolerably plentiful ; 

 as also the bustard (otis tarda); emeu (Rhea Novoz Hollandice) ; black 

 swan (cygnus atratus) ; cockatoo (psittacus galeritus and psittacus 

 funereus) ; bronze pigeon (colomba chalcoptera) ; wild duck (anas f era) \ 

 quails (coturnix) parrot (platycercus scapulatus) parroquets, several 

 kinds (psittacus formosus) ; birds of paradise (scythrops psittacus) ; 

 swamp pheasant (cuculus phasianus) ; wattle bird (merops) ; snipes 

 and several other small birds. 



Three rivers intersect this spacious valley, viz. the Swan, the Can- 

 ning, and the Murray. They are supposed to have their source in 

 small streams in the Darling range of mountains, which unite, gradual- 

 ly increase in size, and run from east to west, in a tortuous direction, 

 with a gentle current, into the sea ; they are affected twice a day by 

 the tides, which render the water brackish during the summer months, 

 but it is fresh and fit for use at other seasons. They are shallow fc* 



