368 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION E. 



possible that different radiating properties of various soils or rock- 

 masses* may exert some influence in the more rapid congelation or 

 thawing of snow-flakes, or that parallel air currents may be 

 different degrees of moisture or of temperature. It is not 

 unusual after a snow-storm to find at night that the snow which 

 has fallen in the open is more luminous than that which has fallen 

 in the shade of timber trees. This peculiar phosphorescence is no 

 doubt due to exposure during the day of the many reflecting 

 surfaces of the small speculse of ice to the sun's rays, and to their 

 retaining the light after the sun has set. I have observed, near the 

 ummit of Mount Kosciusko, at an elevation of 7,200 feet, masses 

 of consolidated snow fully thirty feet deep — maiden glaciers — 

 resting in the hollows of verdant slopes during mid-summer. And 

 as the huge masses of tabular granite which form the rocky crests 

 of this important mountain chain (presenting in many places 

 escarpments fully forty feet above the gentle slopes which surround 

 them), are covered with snow early in June of each year, it is not 

 improbable that the annual fall at this elevation amounts to fifty 

 feet coresponding to an annual rainfall of from fifty to sixty inches. 

 I am not aware that there is any rule for an increase in the fall of 

 snow with elevation. I am inclined to believe that there are vapour 

 palnes, and that upon the percentage of moisture present in any 

 of ^ these zones, or the degrees of temperature — which are no 

 doubt governed by many complex causes at present little under- 

 stood — the fall of snow depends. 



The manner in which snow accumulates in certain situations in 

 the higher elevations is admirably described by Dr. von Lendenfeld 

 in his " ISTotes on the Meteorology of Mount Kosciusko."! 



Often when the sky is clear during the morning, towards after- 

 noon dense masses of vapour are seen floating up the valleys of 

 the Tambo and other streams from the sea board, at a mean 

 elevation of 3,000 feet, and settling on the ranges round Omeo, 

 causing a rapid fall of the temperature. These fogs are, according 

 to old residents, generally the forerunner of dry seasons, and 

 are altogether distinct from the ordinary radiation fogs of Sir M. 

 Herschel. Wliilst botanising on Mount Kosciusko some years ago, 

 an opportunity was aflbrded the writer of watching the progress of 

 one of these southern fogs coming f rom the sea board. A warm cloud- 

 less morning, with the thermometer at 92° in the sun, at 1 p.m., at 

 an elevation of 7,000 feet, was followed by a warm cloudless after- 

 noon until 5 p.m., when large masses of what appeared to be 

 dense nimbus clouds were seen on the southern horizon, which 

 gradually enlarged, and could be seen surging up the valleys. 

 At last the temperature sank to 43° F., when a dense fog 

 suddenly enveloped the summit of the mountain, and in a few 

 minutes began to clear off again, sinking to a level of about 



*Loomis' Meteorology, p. 2f). 



t Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, X. p. 41, 



