96 On the Climate of New South Wales, 6^c. 



that New South Wales appears to possess many advantages- 

 The voyage is sufficiently long to benefit an invalid, without his 

 being exhausted by its duration, if the passage be made through 

 Bass's Straits, or to the southward of Van Diemen's Land. Af- 

 ter arriving at Sydney, any climate requisite, whether cold or 

 warm, may be chosen in twenty-four hours. There is an exten- 

 sive and elegant society, a perfectly English town, and as fine 

 animal food as is to be had in the world, together with all the 

 delightful vegetables and fruits, which are so seldom to be found 

 good out of England. 



2. Climate of Sennar *. • 



After a long and tiresome sojourn of nearly five months at 

 Chartum, I set out for Sennar with that sort of hilarity which a 

 man feels when released from " durance vile." 



For nearly eight months of the year, the country around Sen- 

 nar wears an aspect of the most frightful sterility ; realizing, in 

 every sense, the ideas we are apt to form of the regions of the 

 torrid zone. Immense plains, which extend farther than the 

 eye can reach, present an unvarying expanse of arid sands, 

 strewn with withered plants ; or, should a scanty vestige of ver- 

 dure occur, it consists of mere thistles and oshar. The forests 

 wear an equally melancholy appearance. In the months of 

 April and May, when our own country is clothed in renovated 

 verdure, it remains dead and lifeless under the sky of these 

 climes ; whilst the trees are quite as naked, and their branches 

 quite as leafless, as during the winter season with us, unless, in- 

 deed, a solitary leaflet may here and there be seen struggling 

 into existence. No sooner, however, does the rainy season set 

 in, than the scene undergoes a complete metamorphosis ; and 

 one or two falls of rain are sufficient to produce it. The sands 

 of the desert, which, to all appearance, were unsusceptible of 

 vegetation, smile with their carpets of verdant brilliancy, and 

 are not excelled in beauty by our gayest pastures. The plains 

 are covered with a variety of grasses, which afford an ample and 

 acceptable subsistence to the flocks ; the soil, from which every 

 living thing had be jn banished, is at once instinct with life ; the 

 woods array themselves in all their splendour, and afford their 



• From the maiuiscript Journal ofG. B. Brocchi, as given in the London 

 Literary Gazette. 



