230 ENVIRONS OF LAKE ALEXANDEINA. 
and agitated surface with such rapidity, that I had scarcely 
time to view it as we passed ; but, cursory as my glance was, 
I could not but think I was leaving behind me the fullest 
reward of our toil, in a country that would ultimately ren- 
der our discoveries valuable, and benefit the colony for whose 
interests we were engaged. Hurried, I would repeat, as my 
view of it was, my eye never fell on a country of more pro- 
misingaspect, or of more favourable position, than that which 
occupies the space between the lake and the ranges of St. 
Vincent’s Gulf, and, continuing northerly from Mount 
Barker, stretches away, without any visible boundary. 
It appeared to me that, unless nature had deviated from 
her usual laws, this tract of country could not but be fer- 
tile, situated as it was to receive the mountain depo- 
sits on the one hand, and those of the lake upon the other. 
In my report to the Colonial Government, however, I 
did not feel myself justified in stating, to their full extent, 
opinions that were founded on probability and conjecture 
alone. But, although I was guarded in this particular, I 
strongly recommended a further examination of the coast, 
from the most eastern point of Encounter Bay, to the head 
St. Vincent’s Gulf, to ascertain if any other than the known 
channel existed among the sand-hills of the former, or if, as 
I had every reason to hope from the great extent of water to 
the N. W., there was a practicable communication with the 
lake from the other ; and I ventured to predict, that a closer 
survey of the interjacent country, would be attended with 
the most beneficial results ; nor have I a doubt that the pro- 
