94 On the Climate of New South Wales, <^c. 



than two days at a time. Their termination is marked as deci- 

 sively as their commencement. The air becomes darkened ; a 

 severe thunder storm comes on, accompanied with rain and hail, 

 the latter of a very large size ; the wind shifts to the SE., and a 

 cold southerly squall sets in, which lasts for a few hours, when 

 the sun reappears, the sky assumes its usual pale blue, and the 

 atmosphere acquires its wonted serenity. Collins speaks of 

 these siroccos as killing birds, beasts, and men, who are exposed 

 to them ; but Mr Martin has ridden through the forest when 

 the red hot charcoal beneath his horse's feet, and the falling co- 

 lumns of fire from trees in his path, made it highly hazardous, 

 without feeling any other effect than excessive fatigue, after 

 riding forty or fifty miles in such an atmosphere. 



Rainy weather is most frequent in the month of March, 

 sometimes in February or January ; it lasts about twenty days, 

 and occasionally the rivers are so swollen by the mountain tor- 

 rents, as to sweep away from the banks stacks of corn, dwelling- 

 houses, men, and cattle. The month of April, which is the 

 Australian autumn, is very similar to the same month in Eng- 

 land : fires are pleasant in the morning and evening. May is 

 truly delightful. The winter months, viz. June, July, and 

 August, have an extremely bracing effect on a debilitated con- 

 stitution ; the atmosphere being not only cool, but entirely di- 

 vested of the humidity which characterises an English winter, 

 the greatest height of the mercury being 63°, and the lowest 

 27°. The ground is covered with a hoar frost in the morning, 

 and ice, about the thickness of a Spanish dollar, is found even 

 some hours after sunrise. On the mountain road to Bathurst, 

 snow of two feet in depth has remained on the ground for seve- 

 ral days, and ponds have been frozen over sufficiently thick to 

 admit of a loaded waggon being driven over them without 

 breaking. 



Mr Martin exemplifies by a fact, that the winters of New 

 South Wales are delightfully mild. He has placed, at night, 

 at Paramatta, a vessel of milk under a tree in his garden, and 

 in the morning, while eating the iced cream, plucked the ripe 

 and ripening oranges and citrons. Frequently a second crop of 

 pears and other summer fruits is produced in winter, and trees 

 blossom again. 



