over, that the principal pastoral and agricultural districts are
found. There are the farm settlements, the flocks, and herds of the
colony. From the Victoria plains north of Toodyay, for hundreds of
miles to the southward, comprising the fertile districts of Northam,
York, Beverley, the Dale and the Hotham, is found a surface of stiff
soil, covered over with straggling herbage, and many varieties of
trees and shrubs. But I am travelling too fast: I must pause for
the present at Perth.

Circumstances determined me to take up my residence there, instead of
accompanying the rest of my party into the interior, as I had
originally intended. I liked the appearance and situation of the
town; and I liked the people generally. And here I may state, with
many kindly feelings, that never was a more united or cordial society
than that of the town of Perth, with its civil and military officers,
and its handful of merchants. No political or religious differences
have hitherto disturbed its harmony; nor have there yet been
introduced many of those distinctions which may be necessary and
unavoidable in large communities, but which, though generally to be
met with in all societies, are not only lamentable but highly
ridiculous in small out-of-the-way colonies. Such divisions,
however, must be apprehended even here in progress of time, and the
period will come when we shall look back with regret to those days
when we were all friends and associates together, and when each
sympathized with the fortunes of his neighbour. The kindly feeling
which thus held society together, was ever manifested at the death of
one of its members. Then not only the immediate connexions of the
deceased attended his funeral, but every member of his circle, and
many also of the lower classes. It has more than once happened that
a young man has fallen a victim to his rashness and nautical