Seienitic Intelligence—Meleorology. 359 
diversity in the climate, and such is really the case. Van Diemen’s 
Land, from its isolated and more southern position, is cooler, and 
characterized by greater humidity than Australia; its vegetation is 
therefore abundant, and its forests dense and difficult of access. The 
climate of the Continent, on the other hand, between the 25th and 
35th degrees of latitude, is much drier, and hasa temperature which 
is probably higher than that of any other part of the world, the 
thermometer frequently rising to 110°, 120°, and even 130° in the 
shade, and this high temperature is not unfrequently increased by 
the hot winds which sweep over the country from the northward, and 
which indicate most strongly the parched and steril nature of the in- 
terior. Unlike other hot countries, this great heat and dryness is 
unaccompanied by night-dews, and the falls of rain being uncertain 
and irregular, droughts of many months’ duration sometimes occur, 
during which the rivers and lagoons are dried up, the land becomes 
a parched waste, vegetation is burnt up, and famine spreads destruc- 
tion on every side. It is easier for the imagination to conceive than 
the pen to depict, the horrors of so dreadful a visitation. The indi- 
genous animals and birds retire to the mountains, or to more distant 
regions exempt from its influence. Thousands of sheep and oxen 
perish, bullocks are seen dead by the roadside, or in the dried-up 
water holes, to which, in the hope of relief, they had dragged them- 
selves, ab to fall and die; trees are cut down for the sake of the 
twigs as fodder ; the flocks are driven to the mountains, in the hope 
that water may there be found, and every effort is made to avert the 
impending ruin; but, in spite of all that can be done, the loss is ex- 
treme. At length a change takes place, rain falls abundantly, and 
the plains, on which, but lately, not a blade of herbage was to be 
seen, and over which the stillness of desolation reigned, become free 
with luxuriant vegetation. Orchidee@, and thousands of flowers of 
the loveliest hues are profusely spread around, as if nature rejoiced 1 in 
her renovation, and the grain springing up rigorously, g gives promise 
of an Bbandant harvest. This change from sterility to abundance, 
in the vegetable world, is accompanied by a correspondent increase 
of animal life; the waters become stocked with fish, the marshy dis- 
tricts with frogs and other reptiles, hosts of caterpillars and other 
insects make their appearance, and, spreading over the surface of 
the country, commence the work of devastation, which, however, is 
speedily checked by the birds of various kinds that follow in their train, 
Attracted by the abundance of food, hawks, of three or four species, in 
flocks of hundreds, depart from their usual solitary habits, become gre- 
garious and busy at the feast, and thousands of Straw-necked Ibises 
(Ibis spinicollis) and other species of the feathered race, revel in the 
profusion of a welcome banquet. It must not, however, be imagined 
that this change is effected without its attendant horrors ; the heavy 
rains often filling the river beds so suddenly that the onward-pour- 
