Volume II Part 9 (1/2)

DISTRICTS OF BABBAGE AND VICTORIA.

Three extensive districts of good country were also found in the course of this expedition, the Province of Victoria, before alluded to, the district of Babbage, and another adjacent to Perth, to which I have not affixed a name.

The district of Babbage is situated on and near the river Gascoyne, which stream discharges itself in the central part of the main that fronts Shark Bay, and may indeed almost be recorded as the central point of the western coast of Australia; thus at once occupying the most commanding position in Shark Bay and one of the most interesting points on that coast; it is moreover the key to a very fine district which is the only one in that vast inlet that appears well adapted to the purposes of colonization.

COAST OF SHARK BAY.

Immediately to the south of the southern mouth of this river commences a line of shoals which at low-water are nearly dry, extending to a distance of from two to four miles from the coast and running with scarcely any intermission round the bay: except at high-water it is therefore impossible to approach the greater part of the coast, even in the smallest boat, unless by tracking it over those flats, which proceeding is not unattended with danger, for, if it comes on to blow at all hard, owing to the shoalness of the water, the whole of them becomes a ma.s.s of broken billows. I feel convinced it was owing to this circ.u.mstance that the navigators who had previously visited this bay left so large a portion of its coast unexplored.

The shoals in the vicinity of the mouth of this river, as well as those in the river itself, have many snags upon them; and on the coast of Bernier Island, opposite to the main, we found the remains of large trees which had been washed down the river and had then been drifted across the bay. It was that circ.u.mstance which first convinced me that a large river existed hereabouts, and induced me so minutely to examine the coast.

This occurrence of driftwood in the neighbourhood of large rivers is a circ.u.mstance unknown upon the south-western sh.o.r.es of this continent. I however observed it in Prince Regent's River and other rivers to the north, as well as in the Arrowsmith. This latter however is the most southern river in which I have remarked it, and it certainly is an evidence of the existence of timber of a much lighter description than has. .h.i.therto been known in this part of the continent.

MOUTHS OF THE GASCOYNE.

The southern mouth of the Gascoyne is however completely free from shoals, and has seven feet water on the bar at low tide. There is also a channel in it which has never less than this depth of water for about four miles from its mouth, after which it is only navigable for small boats in the dry season, and that merely for a short distance.

The greatest difficulty which presents itself in entering the southern mouth arises from what in America are termed snags, that is, large trees, the roots of which are firmly planted in the bed of the river, whilst the branches project up the stream, and are likely to pierce any boat in its pa.s.sage down. These snags are however more to be feared at the time of high-water than at any other period, for they have generally become fixed upon shoals as they originally descended the river, and at low water can easily be seen.

The northern mouth of the Gascoyne is more difficult of entrance than its southern one, being narrower and more shoal. I still however think that at high water it could be entered by small craft; but as my examination of it was hurried and imperfect from our being pressed for provisions at the time I was there, the opinion I have given above must be received with caution.

Our visit to this river took place at the close of a season which had been preceded by the driest one known since the occupation of the western coasts by Europeans. There was consequently but little fresh water in the bed of the river, and this only in small pools; but the breadth of its main channel (for it sometimes had several) was where I measured it upwards of three hundred yards, and this measurement was made in a part which was by no means the widest.

THE COUNTRY ADJACENT.

The bed of the river was composed of fine white sand. The country had a gentle slope from the interior, and no land of any great elevation was visible from the farthest point I attained, distant about fifteen miles from the coast.

Plains of a rich reddish loam bordered the river on each side. These were occasionally broken by low, gently-rounded hills, composed of the same soil. Freshwater lagoons, frequented by wild-fowl, were found in several places; and during the course of my walks, which extended for several miles in various directions, I saw no termination to this good land except on approaching the sea, where the salt marshes always commenced; but along the southern bank of the river, to the point where its mouth actually disembogued into the open bay, the land was of a fertile description: the country, even in the dry season, during which we were there, being covered with rich gra.s.s.

I ought here to state that this river is the most southern one that I have ascertained to be deficient in that universal characteristic of all those in the south-west of this continent: an estuary. I must observe that I have not seen the mouths of three or four of the rivers before enumerated, and cannot therefore say that some of them may not terminate in estuaries; but the Gascoyne discharges its waters by two mouths of considerable magnitude, between which lies Babbage Island, the southern mouth being in lat.i.tude 24 degrees 57 minutes.

This is also the most southern river on the western side of this continent where the rise and fall of tide is sufficiently great to exercise any influence upon it relatively to the purposes of navigation.

Hence it would appear that the presence of estuaries at the mouths of rivers on this coast is in some way connected with the amount of tidal elevation at the points where they are found. The rise and fall here was about five and a half feet; but there is only one full tide in twenty-four hours. The first tide rises to a certain point, and it has scarcely commenced to ebb, ere the second comes slowly in, so that, to a careless observer, only one tide is perceptible.

PROVINCE OF VICTORIA.

The province of Victoria is situated between the parallels of 27 degrees 30 minutes and 29 degrees 30 minutes south lat.i.tude; its most considerable river is the Hutt, which disembogues into a large estuary. A few miles above the estuary the river separates into two branches, both of which were running strong at the time we pa.s.sed them.

Previously to our reaching the Hutt our boats had all been wrecked; I had therefore no opportunity of examining whether the estuary of this river was navigable or not; from its size however I should be inclined to the affirmative. The other princ.i.p.al streams which drain this district are the Buller, and the Murchison.

One remarkable feature in the province of Victoria is that the carboniferous series is here developed throughout a tract of Western Australia extending in lat.i.tude from the bottom of Geographe Bay to near Cape Cuvier, and which I have carefully examined. The tract above alluded to is the only one in which I have yet found the rocks belonging to this series: this circ.u.mstance therefore imparts a very high degree of interest to the district in question.

Within a few weeks after my return from the province of Victoria applications from settlers were made to the Government of Western Australia to permit them to occupy a district which had been so highly spoken of; this application was however unsuccessful, but an expedition was subsequently sent there to ascertain if there was a navigable entrance to the Hutt River. In this object the expedition was unsuccessful, but the vessel touched at the Abrolhos Islands and at some parts of the adjacent coast, including Port Grey.*

(*Footnote. See above. [The coast to the eastward of the Abrolhos has been since examined by H.M.'s surveying vessel the Beagle, Captain Wickham, R.N., and while these sheets were pa.s.sing through the press an account of the survey of Port Grey, under the appellation of Champion Bay, appeared in the Nautical Magazine for July 1841 page 443, from which periodical it has been copied into Appendix B at the end of this volume.

ED.])

MR. MOORE'S JOURNAL. MR. MOORE'S VOYAGE TO HOUTMAN'S ABROLHOS AND PORT GREY.

An account of some of the places visited was subsequently published in the Perth Gazette, being contained in extracts from the journal of G.F.

Moore, Esquire, the Queen's Advocate at Perth, who sailed with the expedition; and as Mr. Moore's description contains several points of novelty and interest these extracts are again transcribed below.