possibly, afford secure harbours for boats, but the circumstances under which I was travelling did not admit of my delaying to examine them, and, for the convenience of crossing, I usually kept so fur inland as to intercept them above the termination of the salt-water reaches. The high downs among which these water-courses wind are, as I remarked before, sandy, and covered with shrubs, and the soil poor, and destitute of grass; hut in the valleys themselves, and in small portions of the slopes immediately above them, we found some patches of good and, occasionally, of rich soil, upon which the herbage was abundant and luxuriant. These tracts, however, as far as I could judge, were of very limited extent; nor was there any timber in their vicinity, beyond the few small stunted tea trees growing along the banks of the water-courses. At intervals between these various creeks, we met with many holes—sometimes of salt, at other times of fresh, water. A few tea-trees, and occasionally a few straggling eucalypti, grew around their margins; but I seldom succeeded in finding any grass.
"Passing behind Lucky Bay to the lagoons W. of Esperance Bay, I traversed a considerable extent of grassy land, consisting principally of sandy undulations, but with many patches of rich soil in the flats and valleys. Water appeared to be abundant; but there was still a total absence of all timber but the tea-tree. From the salt lagoons we crossed over a very barren country, and had much difficulty in procuring any grass for our horses. The water is generally very brackish, and there is much scrub. The rock formation was principally quartz, ironstone, and sandstone, with much grit on the surface. About sixteen miles N.E. of Cape Riche, we fell in with a considerable salt-water river from the W.N.W., which appeared to join the sea at a gap left by Flinders in the coast line, and marked as 'a sandy bight, not perfectly seen.' We found several permanent pools of fresh-water not very far distant, in deep narrow gullies, by which the country hereabouts is much intersected. From the depth of the river, and boggy nature of its bed, we were obliged to trace its course for about ten miles from the sea before we could cross. Here the water-course was obstructed by a ledge of rocks, and its channel appeared to become more contracted and rocky, whilst the soil, for the most part, is of an inferior description. Along its immediate banks there was a little grass, and more wood than we had previously seen anywhere; the trees are, casuarina, tea-tree, and eucalypti. Beyond the point at which I crossed the river, the country (as far as I was enabled to judge from a distant view) appeared to improve somewhat; many clear and seemingly grassy patches were seen on the slopes towards the river: and good runs, for either sheep or cattle, might probably be found in this direction. After crossing the river, we met, for the first time, with stunted trees of the kind called the mahogany; but it was not until we had passed some miles to the westward of Cape Riche that we saw any large trees, or got into a country that could properly be called a timber one. Here the mahogany, red gum, casuarinæ, and other trees common at King George's Sound, abounded, and formed a tolerably dense forest nearly all the way to that settlement. From the head of Doubtful Island Bay, I had kept some distance from the coast, cutting off the various corners as circumstances admitted, and cannot, therefore, give an opi-
