188 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
descanted upon tlie merits of their contributions,* that we 
cannot do better than allow them to describe, in their own 
language, those objects which chiefly attracted our attention. 
Of the “ Jarrah ” tree (a species of myrtle) they say : — 
None of tlie other Australian colonics possesses timber of similar cha- 
racter to the Jarrah, or endowed with equally valuable properties. 
The Jarrah is remarkable for its enduring qualities, for its resistance to 
decay — setting at defiance time, weather, water, the white ant, and the sea- 
wonn. One of the pieces of wood exhibited is a pile from a jetty in the sea 
at Freemantle, where it remained during a period of twenty-nine years. The 
lower portion was under water, exposed to the attacks of the sea-wonn, which 
in those seas destroys every other wood in a very short time ; the middle 
was between wind and water, submerged or exposed with every change of 
tide ; the upper portion was always exposed to the action of the weather, 
to the intense sun of summer, and the long-continued rains of winter. 
Another piece of the same species of wood has been buried underground 
for thirty-one years untouched by the white ant, and which in a few months 
destroys every other kind of wood so circumstanced. 
For this valuable quality, the Jarrah is now much sought after for rail- 
way sleepers in the other Australian colonies and in India. 
The Jarrah, when better known, will doubtless be found available in the 
ports and dockyards of the United Kingdom for piles, dock gates, and other 
purposes for which Hyamised woods have been found inefficient. It is also 
admirably adapted for keel-pieces, kelsons, and other heavy parts of ship- 
building. 
The pretensions of the wheat, too, fall very little short of that 
exhibited in “ South Australia,” one specimen being marked 
66 lb. to the bushed ; and the reader will not be surprised that 
such beautiful cereals should be produced in a country the 
climate of which is thus described in an official report of the 
Colonial Secretary, 1858 : — - 
I believe that, in general salubrity of climate, Western Australia pos- 
sesses a marked superiority over any of the Australian colonies. It is subject 
to no extremes of heat or cold. Cattle have never been known to die from 
lack of water, and in the very driest weather there is a sufficient supply of 
food for them. Exposure to weather, by night or day, appears to produce no 
ill effects on the constitution of the colonists, many of whom, for months 
together, rarely sleep under any beyond the most temporary dwellings. Snow 
is never seen ; ice only in the depth of winter, and then only in the very 
early morning. As in New Zealand, both maize and potatoes ripen in this 
country, and the latter crop is grown to a considerable extent. The apple 
and the pear, the orange, banana, fig, peach, and apricot, with the melon and 
* Descriptive Catalogue (no publisher named) : A. Andrews, Esq., London 
Commissioner, 2, Church Court, Clement’s Lane. 
