Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

—390 AUSTRALASIA.spaces from the other Australasian colonies, with which it communicates only bysea. The dangerous overland routes across the intervening solitudes still rank withthose rare and daring exploits which are recorded iu the annals ol: geographicalexploration.The centre of the colony is the city of Perth, which has been founded 12 milesfrom the coast on the banks of the Swan River, at a point where it exj)ands intoFig-. 170.Pekth AMD ITS Envieons.Scule 1 : 600,000.80 to 160Feet.^— 12 Miles.the form of a lake. This modest capital is connected by road and rail with itsseaport of Fremanfle, which lies on the south side of the Swan estuary ;but thereis no natural harbour and the open roadstead is so unsafe during the prevalence ofthe north and. noith-west winds that the shipi:)ing has at times to take refugefarther south in Cockburn Sound between the coast and Garden Island. Nevertheless,Fremantle is the busiest port in the colony, and here are shipped the