THK VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



One of the most remarkable, perhaps, of red-rain showers, as 

 regards the quantity of sediment brought down, occurred in Vic- 

 toria and parts of the neighbouring States on 14th February, 1903. 

 Early in the day the weather was fine and bright, but a northerly 

 wind springing up caused the streets in Melbourne to be partly 

 obscured by dust. The warm and oppressive north wind con- 

 tinued steadily blowing until about 3.45 p.m., and the suspended 

 dust at last imparted a copper colour to the sky. The highest 

 shade temperature in Melbourne was 91.6. At the lime men- 

 tioned an instantaneous change took place, the wmd quickly veering 

 round to the south-west, and in a moment a cool, damp, and 

 almost icy wind from the Southern Ocean took the place of the 

 oppressive north wind which had until then been blowing. The 

 south-west wind blew with increasing force, and at one time had 

 a velocity of 67 miles per hour. The change in the direction of 

 the wind was emphasized by a sudden darkening of the sky, and 

 far above in an east and west direction the dust clouds could be 

 seen as a dense purplish bank being driven northward, followed 

 by patches and flecks of snow-white clouds marking the 

 progress of the south wind, which was forcing its way beneath 

 and against the heated dust cloud. At this time it was 

 so dark as to make it necessary for lamps to be lighted 

 to enable one to read. At 5 p.m. rain, saturated with 

 fine dust, commenced to fall, colouring everything upon 

 which it fell of a chocolate tint. Upon holding out a 

 sheet of writing paper the rain would quickly discolour 

 it with reddish-brown spots. We collected the sediment 

 from this fall for detailed microscopic examination, at Camber- 

 well, 5 miles east of, and at St. Kilda, 4 miles south-east of Mel- 

 bourne respectively. Five fluid ounces of rain were collected by 

 one of us at Camberwell, and this yielded 17 grains of dry 

 sediment. 



This cyclonic disturbance appears to have spent its force mainly 

 on the coastal areas, and does not seem to have gone far beyond 

 the Divide. 



Still more recently, on 28th March, a red-rain fall occurred, on 

 a Saturday as in the previous instance, and at nearly the same 

 time ; emphasizing the general rule that a cycle of weather in 

 Victoria takes about 7 to 9 days to complete. Material from 

 these two falls yielded both diatoms and various minerals, and 

 these will be presently enumerated and described. Wc have 

 already referred (see p. 21) to the probable amount of sediment 

 which fell per square mile on this particular date. 



It may be mentioned incidentally that on the 15th of February 

 a storm of hail passed over Camberwell, the hail-stones having a 

 curious shape, like a depressed mushroom. One of their surfaces 

 was convex, the opposite conical, and having a short stalk ; the 



