be nearly equal; but that of the better description will still,
I think, fall short of the other two. Taking South Australia in its
length and breadth, the quantity of available land is, beyond doubt, very
limited, but I regard it as exceedingly good, and believe that its
capabilities have by no means been ascertained. I feel satisfied, indeed,
that necessity will prove, not only, that the present pastoral districts
are capable of maintaining a much greater number of stock upon them than
they have hitherto borne, but that the province is also capable of
bearing a very great amount of population; that it is peculiarly fitted
for a rural peasantry, and that its agricultural products will be
sufficient to support masses of the population employed either in its
mining or manufactures. In this view of the subject it would appear that
Providence has adapted the land to meet its new destinies, and that
nothing we can say, either in praise or censure of its natural
capabilities, will have the effect of concealing either the one or the
other, as time shall glide on.

On the better soils the average crop of wheat is rather over than under
twenty-five bushels to the acre. In many localities, and more especially
when the ground is first cropped, it exceeds forty; and on some lands,
once my own, in the Reed Beds, at the termination of the Torrens' river,
five acres, which I sold to Mr. Sparshott, averaged fifty-two bushels to
the acre. The Reed Beds may be said to be on the plains of Adelaide, and
their very nature will account to the reader for the richness of their
soil; but the soil of the plains is not generally good, excepting in such
places where torrents descending from the hills have spread over
portions, and covered them with an alluvial deposit to a greater or less
depth. The average crop of wheat on the plains does not exceed twelve or
fifteen bushels to the acre, and depends on the time when the hot winds
may set in. Barley on the light sandy soil of the plains is much heavier
than wheat.

In the description I have thus endeavoured to give of South Australia, I
have omitted any mention of the district of Port Lincoln, chiefly because
sufficient was not known of it when I sailed for England to justify my
hazarding any remark. Recent advices from the colony state that a
practicable line of route from Adelaide has been discovered along the
western shore of Spencer's Gulf, and therefore, the disasters that
overtook early e