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tralia. The climate of Quito, the capital of the South American republic of Ecuador, practically on the line of the Equator, on a plateau over 9,000 ft. above the sea, has been described as the most perfect in the world—the climate of perpetual spring. But its advocates forget the rapid chills at night that cause so much pneumonia, the scourge of these lofty sites.

We have already alluded to the popular impression that the climate of Perth is enervating, yet just as there is no such thing as a perfect man, so from a medical point of view there is no such thing as a perfect climate. But if the climates of the world were grouped together that of Perth and its environs should easily hold its own against them all.

Government publications and the Press of Australia have from time to time clearly shown that our Island Continent climatically and otherwise offers greater advantages to the settler on the land and the prospective immigrant than does Canada and other portions of our Empire’s oversea dominions. But we can go farther and show that the climate of Western Australia has advantages which her sister Eastern States do not possess.

Our soil, as a rule, may be poorer and less uniform in quality, but this deficiency is more than compensated by the regularity of our seasons. We have never had, and from our geographical position can never have, those devastating droughts which periodically visit the eastern portion of the continent.

Thus we never have anything approaching a failure of crops or a decimation of herds such as those failures of Nature which visited the Eastern States in the years 1902, 1903, and 1908, bringing in their train privation, misery, and disaster.

Considering the geographical extent of Western Australia, the numerical strength of the Geological Survey Staff, and the paramount necessity of attention being concentrated upon examinations in and round important mining centres or other districts of potentially economic value, geological inquiry has up to the present consisted merely of a series of unconnected observations, to the co-ordination of which we must look to the future. Despite this circumstance work has now been so widely extended as to permit of a more or less broad, generalized account of the salient geological features of the State being prepared, though no attempt has been made to enter into minute details.

History.—As the preparation of this account is to a large extent based upon the work of previous official geologists it is not out of place to give a succinct account of their labours.

Dr. Ferdinand von Sommer would appear to have been the first official geologist employed in Western Australia. This gentleman travelled extensively throughout the State during the years 1847 to 1851. He geologically examined the Victoria, Toodyay, and York districts, and extended his observations to the country lying between the last named and Mount Barren, on the south coast. Neither the maps nor the reports of this observer have ever been published, although three articles from his pen bearing upon the geology of the State have appeared in the current literature during the years 1848 and 1849.

After an interval of 21 years, during which much excellent geological work was accomplished by the Gregory Brothers, Mr. H. Y. L. Brown was appointed to the post of Government Geologist. This gentleman during the years 1870 to 1873 prepared three geological maps and ten reports (now out of print), which referred principally to the southern and coastal portions of the State. Mr. Brown's appointment was not continued beyond 1873 owing to the disinclination of the Legislature to expend money on a scientific department.

In 1882—nine years after Mr. Brown's retirement—Mr. E. T. Hardman, of the Geological Survey of Ireland, was appointed to the post of Government Geologist. His labours were confined chiefly to the Kimberley district, in which he was the pioneer geological observer, and his field work carried out during the years 1883-4 laid the foundation of our knowledge of the geology of this portion of Western Australia, and played an important part in the opening up of the State's first declared goldfield. This officer examined the neighbourhood of Bunbury and Blackwood, and the metropolitan area with reference to the question of its water supply from underground sources.

Very shortly after Mr. Hardman's term of service in Western Australia came to an end a motion was brought forward in the Legislative Council in 1885 having for its object "the establishment of a permanent