RETURN TO PERTH.  RIVER ABSORBED IN SANDY PLAINS.

January 26.

Mr. Elliott this day joined us on our route to Perth, which was attended with no circumstance worthy of notice until our arrival at Pinjarra.  We travelled over extensive plains which in the rainy season of the year must be completely flooded, but in vain looked for the Harvey River and the other stream which flowed from the hills to the sea.  I could find no watercourse in which they might probably flow, yet we had left them both running strongly at not more than ten miles from the point where we then stood.  The truth was that they were absorbed in these marshy plains before they came within several miles of the sea; and what threw a still further light upon the subject was that, although these marshes were perfectly dried up and had a hard-baked appearance at the surface, yet if a hole about two or three feet deep was scraped in them water directly came pouring into it.

On the morning of the 29th we reached Pinjarra; on the 30th Mr. Elliott and myself rode as far as the Canning; and early on the 31st we had the pleasure of entering Perth together.

CHAPTER 14.  FROM SWAN RIVER TO THE SHORES OF SHARK BAY.

PLAN OF EXPEDITION.

At length, in the middle of February, after a mortifying delay of nearly five months, an opportunity occurred which held out every prospect of enabling me to complete the examination of the most interesting portion of the north coast, together with the country lying behind it.

Three whale-boats having been procured, an engagement was made with Captain Long of the American whaler Russel, of New Bedford, to convey my party and the boats to some point to the northward of Shark Bay, and there land us, together with a supply of provisions sufficient for five months.  My intention was to form a provision depot in some island, and from that point to commence operations by the examination of the undiscovered portions of the bay; and, should circumstances occasionally render it desirable, I proposed to explore more minutely parts of the country as we coasted along, or to make excursions to such a distance inland as we might be able to penetrate.

Having completed the examination of the bay as far as we could with the provisions we carried from the depot, I intended to return to it and, after recruiting our stock, to make my way along the coast in the direction of North-West Cape; making excursions inland as before at such points as might seem to merit attention, and thus to continue to go northward until our provisions were so far exhausted as to compel us to return again to the depot; whence I finally proposed to continue my examination to the portion of the coast left unvisited to the southward of the depot, as far as Gantheaume Bay.