the mouth of the Swan. This building is the gaol.

On the other side of the roadstead, about ten or twelve miles distant
from the main, is a chain of islands, of which Rottnest is the most
northern. Then come some large rocks, called the Stragglers, leaving
a passage out from the roadstead by the south of Rottnest; after
these is Carnac, an island abounding with rabbits and mutton-birds;
and still farther south is Garden island.

Fremantle, the principal port of the colony, is unfortunately
situated, as vessels of any burthen are obliged to anchor at a
considerable distance from the shore. Lower down the coast is a fine
harbour, called Mangles Bay, containing a splendid anchorage, and it
is much to be lamented that this was not originally fixed upon as the
site for the capital of the colony.

The first impression which the visitor to this settlement receives is
not favourable. The whole country between Fremantle and Perth, a
distance of ten miles, is composed of granitic sand, with which is
mixed a small proportion of vegetable mould. This unfavourable
description of soil is covered with a coarse scrub, and an immense
forest of banksia trees, red gums, and several varieties of the
eucalyptus. The banksia is a paltry tree, about the size of an
apple-tree in an English or French orchard, perfectly useless as
timber, but affording an inexhaustible supply of firewood. Besides
the trees I have mentioned, there is the xanthorea, or grass-tree, a
plant which cannot be intelligibly described to those who have never
seen it. The stem consists of a tough pithy substance, round which
the leaves are formed. These, long and tapering like the rush, are
four-sided, and extremely brittle; the base from which they shoot is