Feb. 11, 1856.] AUSTRALIA. 35 



offer a satisfactory solution of the problem. His own study of the pheno- 

 mena during five years in Australia, as explained in the * Physical Descrip- 

 tion of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land,' and the 107,000 numerical 

 elements which he comjiuted from registers of simultaneous observations kept 

 in several stations over 14P of latitude, gave him only^an insight into the 

 character, but not into the causes, of the hot wind. These numerical elements 

 showed that the wind— 



1. Impedes the calorific effects of solar rays. 



2. Decreases their intensity. 



3. Increases the temperature of the ambient air. 



4. Increases the atmospheric pressure. 



5. And finally, as to its hygrometric condition, that it is endowed not 



with a capacity for moisture, but with a power of dissolving it in 

 whatsoever form it is collected. 



Besides these results, the examinations showed that this wind raises in the 

 air, clouds of impalpable particles of earthy constituents, which, by their con- 

 tact, friction, pressure, and caloric, impart to it the character of a huge electric 

 apparatus, highly acting upon the whole economy of nature. But how this 

 huge electric machine is set in fiiotion — how far the declination of the sun, 

 the violence of the monsoons which encircle the Australian continent, and the 

 probable depression of its centre, exert an influence upon it, is as yet impos- 

 sible to determine. Moreover, the Australian hot wind is not a local and 

 exceptional phenomenon, but belongs to a series of identical phenomena which 

 are observed in Egypt, Abyssinia, Syria, Arabia, Bombay, Persia, California, 

 and Atacama ; so that a theory advanced to explain the causes of the hot 

 wind of one country, in order to prove of value and soundness, must be appli- 

 cable with equal force to explain the remainder of the series, in which range 

 the theory promulgated by Mr. Landor seems to be deficient. 



As to the importance of the North Australian expedition, and the imperative 

 necessity for the occupation and settlement of Northern Australia, he concurred 

 entirely in the opinion expressed by Sir E. Murchison upon this important 

 subject. He then complimented the Society for having urged on the notice of 

 Government so desirable an undertaking, and remarked that so much import- 

 ance was attached to it in a commercial, as well as in other points of view, by 

 many of the City merchants,, that Mr. Matthew Uzielli, a member of the Society, 

 placed at his disposal 10,000?. to be applied by him, in the event of the Govern- 

 ment refusing to send out the expedition, for the purpose of carrying out the 

 object in question. In conclusion. Count Strzelecki passed an eulogium on 

 the fine spirit which actuated the member alluded to, and said that he felt 

 assured that this Society and the public at large would join him heartily in 

 tendering a vote of thanks to Mr. Uzielli, for his munificent and disinterested 

 offer. 



Mr. Uzielli, responding to the call made upon him by the President, said 

 that he was taken unawares by the reference made to his ofi"er to advance 

 lOjOOOZ. towards defraying the expenses of the North Australian Exploring Expe- 

 dition ; he in the m^ean time felt it his duty to say, that although not aufait 

 in a scientific sense to the great advantages of the survey, he felt sufficiently 

 as a commercial man, the great importance that must be derived by this 

 country from the undertaking. That the commercial advantages of the expe- 

 dition, and the desirability of securing ourselves there, and thus preventing 

 others from taking possession of a country so valuable as a protection to our 

 East Indian colonies, weighed with him a great deal at the time he made the 

 offer alluded to by Count Strzelecki. He nevertheless was very glad to find 

 that our Government had decided on making the expedition a national and 

 not a private one. 



