The country had a gentle slope from the interior, and no land of any great elevation was visible from the farthest point I attained, distant about fifteen miles from the coast.
Plains of a rich reddish loam bordered the river on each side.

These were occasionally broken by low, gently-rounded hills, composed of the same soil.

Freshwater lagoons, frequented by wild-fowl, were found in several places; and during the course of my walks, which extended for several miles in various directions, I saw no termination to this good land except on approaching the sea, where the salt marshes always commenced; but along the southern bank of the river, to the point where its mouth actually disembogued into the open bay, the land was of a fertile description: the country, even in the dry season, during which we were there, being covered with rich grass.
I ought here to state that this river is the most southern one that I have ascertained to be deficient in that universal characteristic of all those in the south-west of this continent: an estuary.

I must observe that I have not seen the mouths of three or four of the rivers before enumerated, and cannot therefore say that some of them may not terminate in estuaries; but the Gascoyne discharges its waters by two mouths of considerable magnitude, between which lies Babbage Island, the southern mouth being in latitude 24 degrees 57 minutes.
This is also the most southern river on the western side of this continent where the rise and fall of tide is sufficiently great to exercise any influence upon it relatively to the purposes of navigation.
Hence it would appear that the presence of estuaries at the mouths of rivers on this coast is in some way connected with the amount of tidal elevation at the points where they are found.

The rise and fall here was about five and a half feet; but there is only one full tide in twenty-four hours.