Captain Stirling describes the weather as very different from that which the French experienced; but the latter were on the coast at the commencement of the winter season.  They were apparently so alarmed at the gales of wind, the rocks, and the reefs, and the banks, that they hastened to leave behind them this part of the coast unexamined, with all convenient speed.  The strong westerly winds that prevail throughout the year in the southern ocean to the southward of the tropic, appear to assume a northern direction near this part of the Coast of Australia.  These winds are here found to be cool and pleasant, and were generally accompanied by clear and serene weather.  The summer winds from the N.W. are not infrequent; and, coming charged with moisture from a warm region into a colder one, they are invariably accompanied by rain; but, in the immediate vicinity of the shore, land and sea breezes are constant and regular.  The climate appears to be delightful.  While the Success was on the coast—­that is, in the autumn—­the average height of the thermometer was 72 deg., the extremes being 84 deg. and 59 deg., the first occurring before the sea-breeze set in, the latter at midnight.  The French found the temperature when at anchor, in June, from 14 deg. to 17 deg. of Reaumur, or 63 deg. to 70 deg. of Fahrenheit.  On the mountains, Captain Stirling says, the temperature appeared to be about 15 deg. below that of the plain.  The alternate land and sea breezes create a moisture in the atmosphere which renders the climate cool and agreeable; the mornings and evenings are particularly so; and the nights are almost invariably brilliant and clear.  Such a climate, it is almost unnecessary to say must be highly favourable to vegetation, which was accordingly observed to be most luxuriant.  “The verdant appearance,” says Captain Stirling, “and almost innumerable variety of grasses, herbaceous plants, shrubs, and trees, show that there is no deficiency in the three great sources of their sustenance, soil, heat, and moisture.”

The general structure and aspect of the country may be thus described:—­from Cape Leuwin to Cape Naturaliste (the southern head of Baie Geographe,) which is not quite a degree of latitude, the coast is formed of a range of hills, of uniform and moderate elevation.  From Geographer’s Bay to the northward of Swan River, the whole coast line is a limestone ridge, varying in height from twenty to six hundred feet, and extending inward to the distance of from one to five miles.  Behind this ridge (whose occasional naked and barren appearance Captain Stirling also thinks may have caused the early and continued prejudice against the fertility of this western coast) commences a great plain, which occupies a space, from south to north, of undetermined length, (reaching, perhaps, to King George’s Sound,) and varying, in breadth, from twenty to fifty miles.  The eastern boundary of this plain skirts the base of an almost continuous and abrupt chain of mountains, to which Captain Stirling gave the name of “General Darling’s Range.”  One of the points, the highest seen and measured by him, was about three thousand feet high, The average height is stated to be from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred feet.  The base is granite; the sides, in many parts, naked; and the soil supports but little vegetation, except the Stringy-bark and some hardy plants.