Cut off, as it is, by the desert, the district has the disadvantage of
none but sea communication with the rest of the Colony. This necessitates
the double shipment of live stock, once at either port, Derby or Wyndham,
after they have been driven so far from the stations, and once again at
Fremantle. A coastal stock route is debarred by the poverty of the
country between Derby and the De Grey River, and a direct stock route
through the desert is manifestly impracticable. It seems to me that too
little attention has been given to horse-breeding, and that a
remunerative trade might be carried on between Kimberley and India, to
which this district is nearer than any other part of Australia.

What horses are bred, though otherwise excellent, are small--a defect
that should easily be remedied. The cattle, too, are rather on the small
side, and this again, by more careful attention to breeding, could be
improved upon.

Hall's Creek is by no means a large town; in fact, it consists of exactly
nine buildings--post and telegraph office and Warden's office and court,
Warden's house, hospital, gaol, police-station, sergeant's house,
butcher's shop and house, store, and hotel.

Besides these there are several nomadic dwellings, such as tents, bush
humpies, and drays.

A house is a luxury, and some of the oldest residents have never built
one. "Here to-day and gone to-morrow, what's the good of a house?"
was the answer I got from one who had only been there for ten years!

Mud-brick walls and corrugated-iron roofs is the style of architecture in
general vogue. The inhabitants are not many, as may be supposed, but
those there are simply overflow with hospitality and good spirits. One
and all were as pleased to see us, and have us live amongst them, as if
we had been old friends. The population is very variable; the surrounding
district contains some fifty or sixty fossickers, who come into town at
intervals to get fresh supplies of flour and salt beef--the one and only
diet of the bushmen in these parts, who, though very rarely seeing
vegetables, are for the most part strong and healthy. Sometimes cases of
scurvy, or a kindred disease, occur; one poor chap was brought in whilst
we were there, very ill indeed. I happened to be up at the hospital, and
asked the orderly (there was no doctor) what he would do for him in the
way of nourishing food. "Well," said he, looking very wise, "I think a
little salt beef will meet the case."