or natural wharfs, with four, five, and six fathoms at their bases.
The same depths are extended over a magnificent expanse of salt water,
to which Captain Stirling has given the name of "Melville Water;" and
which, in his opinion, wants only a good entrance to make it one of
the finest harbours in the world, being seven or eight miles in
length, by three or four in width, and having a depth of water from
four to seven fathoms. This narrow entrance of the river, he thinks,
might be made navigable by ships of burthen, without difficulty or
great expense.

When the town begins to rise, and substantial buildings are required,
the blocks of stone procured by quarrying this entrance will go far
towards paying the expense of excavation.

Into this expansive sheet of water fall two rivers; one from the
north-east, which is properly the Swan River; the other from the
south-east, called Canning's River. Captain Stirling examined them both:
the former to its source, the latter beyond the point where the water
ceased to be brackish. They are both sufficiently convenient for boat
navigation, even at the end of the dry season; and any obstruction might
easily be removed to make them more so, by which the productions of an
immense extent of country might be transported by water-carriage.

Mr. Fraser remarks that nothing of the mangrove appears along the banks
of the Swan River, the usual situation of this plant being here occupied
by the genus Metrosideros. The first plain, or flat, as it is called,
contiguous to the river, commencing at Point Fraser, is formed of a rich
soil, and appears, by a deposit of wreck, to be occasionally flooded to
a certain extent. Here are several extensive salt marshes, which Mr.
Fraser thinks are admirably adapted for the growth of cotton. The hills,