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 grass.

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 latitude 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 latitude; 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 passed them.