90 REPORT — 1853, 



and promising regions. The chief grounds on which these deductions had been 

 made were the known facts as to the climate and meteorology of Australia, and the 

 absence of large rivers and other features. It was well known that the Australian 

 colonies were subject in summer to occasional blasts of what is called the hot wind, 

 from its extremely high temperature. This hot wind always blew from the interior; 

 in New South Wales and Tasmania, its direction being from the north-west, and 

 from the north in Port Phillip and South Australia. The breath of this wind was 

 like the blast from a fiery furnace, increasing the mean temperature of a summer's 

 day, on the westerly side of the eastern Cordillera, 40° ; on the eastern side, both 

 in New South Wales and Tasmania, 25° to 30° ; and while during the hot wind 

 the thermometer rose to 100°, or even 115° in the shade, with the southerly squall 

 there was sometimes a sudden fall of full 40° in the course of half or even a quarter 

 of an hour. This wind swept up from the interior clouds of dust and sand, some- 

 times intermixed with gritty matter, large enough to strike with painful acuteness 

 on the face. Count Strzelecki, while sailing from New Zealand to New South 

 Wales, was prevented from making the harbour of Port Jackson for two successive 

 days, by the violence of this hot wind. Though sixty miles from the shore, the 

 heat exceeded 90°, and the sails of the ship were covered with a small powder by 

 the breeze. The hot winds were, indeed, identical with the sirocco blowing from 

 the great Sahara of Africa, and similar winds in other parts of the globe. It had 

 been justly said that these hot winds, experienced in the southern parts of Australia, 

 could have no other origin than by a current of air blowing over some large expanse 

 of burning desert, and our knowledge of the adjoining regions entirely corroborated 

 this assumption. The discoveries of Capt. Sturt, in his last expedition in particular, 

 indicated the very nest and hot-bed of the winds. The situation of Capt. Sturt's 

 desert was such that there was good reason to think its influences would extend to 

 the whole of the coasts, even to those of W^estern Australia, which were the furthest 

 from it, namely, about 1350 geographical miles; unless the wind blowing from it 

 were inteixepted or deflected in the intervening spaces by mountains, or else 

 ameliorated by countries of different character. The influence of the hot winds 

 from the Sahara had been observed in vessels traversing the Atlantic at a distance 

 of upwards of 1100 geographical miles from the African shores by the coating of 

 impalpable dust upon the sails. Mr. Petermann proceeded to describe the results of 

 his investigations, which tended to point to the supposition that a great part of the 

 interior of Australia consisted of sterile deserts ; that the Torrens Basin and Sturt's 

 Stony Desert formed the centre of the largest of these deserts, which probably ex- 

 tended from 200 to 300 miles around the latter, and that a fringe of 200 to 300 miles 

 extended all along the great Australian bight to Western Australia, and along the 

 western coast as far as the Gascoyne Basin, or even the river Fitzroy. It also 

 appeared to him that the whole of north-west Australia, north of Fitzroy River, as 

 far as the head of Carpentaria Gulf, was a region of the most promising character, 

 and that from this region a spur of more or less elevated land extended as far as 

 the cluster of mountains discovered by Sir Thomas Mitchell, which gave birth to 

 many beautiful rivers flowing in all directions of the compass. This spur would 

 necessarily form a bar between Sturt's desert and the Gulf of Carpentaria. It 

 seemed to him most probable that this promising district of north-west Australia 

 extended far to the south, to the middle of the continent, and be5'ond it, at least to 

 the latitude of Gascoyne River. One significant fact supported the latter opinion, 

 and that was the occurrence of large trees which had been floated down the rivers 

 of north-west Australia, and found at their debouchures, — an occurrence unknown 

 in snuth-western Australia. In conclusion, Mr. Petermann said that by taking his 

 suggestion in connexion with the proposed expedition of Mr. Ernest Haug, he could 

 not but hail with lively satisfaction the determination by which it is hoped a portion 

 of this extensive and promising district would be explored and laid open for the 

 benefit of mankind. 



On a Second Journey to St. Lucia Bay, and the Adjacent Country in 

 South-East Africa. By R. W. Plante. 



Having explored the coast in the neighbourhood of St. Lucia Bay, Mr. Plante 

 was desirous of going beyond that district. In the journey of which this paper 



