Volltext Seite (XML)
the limit of the horizon. Numerous valleys opened in the shore with rounded intervening eminences, thinly sprinkled over with trees, and covered with a fine carpet of verdure. We were now in the spring of the year, and the country had assumed its richest aspect, abundant rains having recently fallen. From the sea-shore, the land rose gra dually towards the hills, whose waving outline, covered with a forest of stately eucalypti, terminated the land scape. It seemed that the land now outstretched before us offered all the natural accessories of a tranquil and happy home, and that it could not fail, ere many years elapsed, to reward with abundance and prosperity the enterprise of its colonists. That these bright anticipations have not been realized is owing to the impediments of a slow survey, rather than to positive defects in the soil or climate of South Australia, which do not widely differ from those of other colonized portions of New Holland. Like them, it is subject to droughts, and to the visitations of the Australian sirocco, or hot winds, during the continuance of which the thermometer has been known to rise to the height of 110° in the shade. Like them, also, it is characterized by a great predominance of bad over good land, and is, by these various circumstances, adapted for pastoral rather than for agricultural pursuits. The navigation of St. Vincent’s Gulf is by no means difficult; and, according to an official report, all danger is avoided in approaching Port Adelaide, by taking care, if tacking to the. westward, not to let the soundings run below fifteen fathoms. The entrance of the Sixteen Mile Creek is now marked by a floating light and a chain of buoys, and the situation of Adelaide is indicated at a b 3