THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 21 



rain which fell over a large area of Victoria on ihe 2'j[h. 

 December, 1896. 



Towards the end of last year a few local showers were recorded 

 in Victoria from the districts of Heathcote, Traralgon, and 

 Cunninghame, bringing down a quantity of tine red dust, which 

 formed a coating of mud upon everything on which it fell, 

 leaving mud-stains on people's clothes and contaminating the 

 domestic water supplies. 



A further sample of rain sediment, collected in South Gipps- 

 land by Mr. W. H. Ferguson of the Mines Department, has been 

 kindly placed at our disposal by Prof. Gregory, F.R.S. We 

 found it differed only slightly from the material obtained by us, 

 and mainly in that it contained a rather larger percentage of 

 mineral matter, principally of quartz fragments. Mr. Ferguson, 

 we are informed, secured the sediment toward the end of last 

 year, and was careful to form an estimate of the total fall per 

 square mile from data available, and this amounted to 50 

 tons. 



A similar estimate made by us with respect to the fall on 28th 

 March gives an approximation to over 35^ tons per square mile 

 for I inch of rainfall ; or, more precisely, 20 grains per squaie 

 foot for I inch of rainfall. Of this total about 397 lbs. would 

 consist of the frustules of diatoms, to which we shall presently 

 refer. 



One of the recent widely-spread dust storms has been noticed 

 in Nature * by Mr. W. A. Dixon, of Sydney, namely that of 

 nth, 1 2th, and 13th November, which visited New South Wales, 

 Victoria, and Tasmania. That writer remarks on the obscuring 

 of the sun by the great quantity of dust present in the air, whilst 

 the sea had a peculiar leaden colour. The latter appearance he 

 compares with the blue colour of the New Zealand hot lakes, and 

 supposes it to be due to a like cause, that of fine particles in 

 suspension. 



From Tasmania Mr. H. S. Dove f described the dust storm on 

 the afternoon of 12th November, 1902, when the sky to the north 

 and north-east was of a chocolate-brown tint. The whirled-up 

 dust was afterwards caught by the rain, which, when it fell, dis- 

 coloured people's clothes. This writer compares the appearance 

 of the sky during the dust storm with that of " Black Thursday," 

 when the fearful bush fires raged over so great an extent of 

 country. 



This same occurrence took the form of a very dense dust storm 

 in Victoria, which lasted during the greater part of the day, and 

 in some places necessitated the use of lamps in the daytime, 

 on account of the darkness. 



* 1st January, 1903, vol. Ixvii., p. 203. 

 f Loc. supra cit. 



