Until you have gone above Perth, the ground is of the same nature; it changes to alluvial flats, and the higher grounds consist of sandy loam of different qualities. Brick and pottery clay is abundant, and they are making bricks in many places, which will soon supersede wood as a material for building. I saw a wooden house burned down some nights ago, and have therefore a dread of one—a mud edifice for me. The great mistake committed by settlers has been bringing too many articles of machinery and implements, which are not necessary, or suited to the soil. Some ploughs, cars, saws, and mill machinery are lying even yet on the beach.
If I were coming again, I should content myself with grubbing hoes, felling axes (mine are too long and narrow), spades, some kitchen utensils, plenty of provisions, and a hammock; these would do to begin with. Those who brought great apparatus and stock were sadly burdened with the first, and did not know what to do with the second. Many of their cattle ran into the bush and were lost, and some of the more delicate died from want of care and fodder on ship-board, or on landing. The emigrant should not encumber himself with any superfluous articles; let him bring plenty of provisions and a few common utensils for cooking them; no cattle from England; very little furniture, and that of the strongest and most portable kind; no large
