Page:Handbook of Western Australia.djvu/48

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36
Western Australia.

cliffs are 250 feet in height, beyond which Gray's Kiver communicates with the lake of the same name; and other lakes and lagoons, both salt and fresh, are continued to the Eastward. At Esperance Bay the granite is again developed in high peaks, rising at Cape le Grand 1040 feet above the sea level. Thomas River to the East and the Weeauenginup Creek are the last waters on the South-east coast of the Colony, the latter being between Capes Arid and Pasley. The limestone cliffs of Hampden Range extend to Wilson's Bluff 7 miles beyond the landing place at Eucla; and Ross plains, beneath these, have an extreme breadth of 25 miles; they are covered with samphire bushes, and afford only water fit for stock.

The Western coast of the Colony presents a range of low sandhills, varied with occasional points of limestone rock, to beyond the Moore River; but the Southern rises in bold granitic headlands at Cape Chatham on the West, 820 feet above the sea, and at Mount Manypeake, to the East of King George's Sound, 1855 feet; Warricup and Bald island are both 1020 feet high; Bennet's Range, to the North of Parry's inlet, culminates in Mt. Lindsay, 1469 feet above the sea; and Kalganup, to the North of Nornalup, at 1384 feet. Between West Cape Howe and Cape Chatham are many extensive inlets,—Burkes, 7½ miles long, Nomalup 2¾, Irwin's, and Parry's, and Wilson's, 8 miles long, of which Nornalup alone is accessible to small craft. There are, however, at Point D'Entrecasteaux, Capes Leeuwin and Chatham, the mouth of Nornalup, and Point Hillier, as well as in Tor Bay, anchorages sheltered by islets and reefs; but, as the Admiralty survey now in progress is complete only in the coast line without soundings, nothing can be said certainly respecting them. King