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CHAPTER II.

Description of Perth—View over Melville Water—Old Government House and Gardens—New Government House considered by some persons to be too large—Employment of convicts in Perth—No chain-gangs seen there—Immigrants' home—Anecdotes of some of the emigrants from our ship—Mistakes amongst poor in England as to the geographical position of Western Australia, and distance from Sydney, Melbourne, and Hobart Town—Difficulty experienced by Emigration Commissioners at home in procuring free emigrants for Swan River—Additional public buildings in Perth erected during the last three years—Town Hall—Wesleyan Church.

The situation of Perth is, as I have already said, a very pretty one. The river is there so wide, and the inward sweep taken by its bank so bold, that the town appears to stand rather upon the shore of some fine lake than upon that of so unimportant a stream as the Swan. This bay, chosen for the site of the capital, is called Melville Water, and is formed by a deep curve of the river bank, commencing at the promontory of Mount Eliza, and extending for a distance of about a mile and a half until it returns towards the opposite shore again by a low sandy stretch of land which almost conceals the farther upward course of the river's channel. Mount Eliza forms a prominent element in the beauty of this spot. Towards the river it is almost precipitous, rising in bold cliffs to a height of about 150 feet from the water which washes its base. On the landward side the hill is differently shaped, since one side slopes very gradually away from the summit, in a direction parallel to the shore, until it meets the low