Like all the Australian rivers with which we are yet acquainted, the Swan is subject to sudden and tremendous floods, which inundate the corn lands in its vicinity, and sweep away all opposing obstacles with irresistible impetuosity.

Narrow escape of the first settlers.

The first settlers had a most providential escape from a calamity of this kind:  they had originally selected for the site of their new city, a low-lying piece of land, which, during the first winter after their arrival, was visited with one of these strange and unexplained invasions from the swelling stream:  had the deluge been delayed for another year, these luckless inhabitants of a new world would have shared the fate of those to whom Noah preached in vain; but, warned in time, they chose some safer spot, from whence, in future, they and their descendants may safely contemplate the awful grandeur of similar occurrences, and thankfully profit by the fertility and abundance which succeed to such wholesale irrigation.  During this, our first visit, I had no opportunity of penetrating into the country further than the Darling range:  in journeying thither, we passed through Guildford, a township on the banks of the Swan, about seven miles north-east from Perth, and four from the foot of the mountains.  It stands upon a high part of the alluvial flat fringing the river, and which extends from half to one mile from it on either side.  The rich quality of the soil may be imagined from the fact, that, in 1843, after thirteen years of successive cropping, it produced a more abundant harvest than it had done at first, without any artificial aid from manures.

Singular flight of strange birds.

A singular flight of strange birds, was noticed at Guildford about the year 1833, during the time when the corn was green:  they arrived in an innumerable host, and were so tame as to be easily taken by hand.  In general appearance they resembled the land-rail, but were larger, and quite as heavy on the wing.  They disappeared in the same mysterious manner as they arrived, and have never since repeated their visit.  Were these birds visitors from the interior, or had they just arrived at the end of a migratory journey from some distant country?  It is to be regretted that no specimen of them was to be obtained, as it might have helped to clear an interesting subject from doubt.

The Darling range.

The change in ascending this range, from the alluvium near its base, to the primitive formation of which it is itself composed, is very remarkable.  Shells still common on the adjacent coasts were met with 14 feet below the surface, near the foot of the range, by one of the colonists when sinking a well.  In the same locality deposits of sand may be seen, having that particular wavy appearance which is always noticed upon the sea beach.  These appearances,