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 Géographe,) 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