142 AMERICAN LUMBER IN FOREIGN MARKETS. 



a low state of the barometer, is the most favorable indication of rain. I have fre 

 quently seen the barometer at its lowest point (as observed by me), 29.3, blowing 

 hard, and accompanied by cloudy weather, when no rain has fallen; on the other 

 hand, I have known some of the steadiest and most copious rains to occur with the 

 barometer at 30.2 and falling, the wind light or nearly calm. 



I may add that generally during fine weather a land and sea-breeze alternates 

 during the twenty-four hours. After sunset the wind generally blows from about 

 southeast to east, dying away about daylight, and a light southwest wind springs 

 up about 9 a. m., but, failing to do so, the land wind towards morning draws round 

 from east to northeast by north to northwest, and west towards the af ernoou; 

 and should it hang to the north of east, with a falling barometer, it is a certain pre- 

 cursor of a hot wind. 



It may not be uninteresting to add here that, when Sydney was visited by tre- 

 mendous storms and floods from the 19th to the end of July, 1860, the weather here 

 was then usually fine for the time of the year; the barometer was, during all that 

 time, above 30 inches and very steady, oscillating slightly each day, its whole range 

 not exceeding 0.2; the wind was very light, from southeast to northeast and 

 northwest. I did not record a drop of rain all that time, an unprecedented event 

 at that period of the year. 



The winds, according to Mr. Todd, during the summer tend generally on all sides 

 to the heated interior, which may be roughly described as a vast plain broken by a 

 few ranges, none of which are of any great size or magnitude; on the south coast, 

 the wind being southeast and south varied by occasional southwest gales following 

 a hot wind from the northeast and north, whilst further north and round the north 

 coast, the northwest monsoon for some months before and after the summer solstice 

 presses down south with varying force, often making itself felt as far south as the 

 Macdonnell ranges an the southern edge of the tropics in the center of the continent. 

 North of the Macdonnell ranges the winds during the summer season are variable, 

 southeast and northwest winds alternating with calms, and heavy electrical 

 storms with rain prevail with increasing intensity northwards to the coast. South 

 of the Macdonnell ranges southeast winds prevail during the greater part of the 

 year, but in the summer they are often influenced by the northwest tropical current, 

 and then veering to the northeast and north will sweep over south Australia as a 

 hot wind, the birthplace of which seems to be, speaking approximately, somewhere 

 about latitude 26. Our experience of the climate of the interior of Australia is as 

 yet but limited, but the stations on the great overland telegraph now furnish accu- 

 rate daily reports of the weather, direction of upper currents, and rainfall. These 

 reports show that the prevailing wind, except during the middle of summer, is south- 

 east. 



In connection with Sir George Kingston's " weather forecasts," the 

 following observations from Mr. Todd may be read with interest: 



I have long been of opinion that the southerly dip of the monsoon largely influences 

 the climate of South Australia proper, as well as that of Victoria. In seasons of 

 drought, or when the summer in the interior is dry, the northwest monsoon rains 

 thin off and rarely reach the center in occasional storms. But when the monsoon is 

 strong and blows well home, the tropical rains and thunder will stretch right across 

 the continent well into the northern country of South Australia to within about 

 200 or 300 miles of Adelaide, and occasionally these tropical rains will reach the 

 south coast. A wet season in the interior will probably coincide with a hot sum- 

 mer in South Australia and Victoria, whilst a cool summer in the latter, where strong 

 polar currents keep the temperature down and the southeast winds are powerful, 

 will denote or coincide with a dry summer in the interior and a weak northwest 

 monsoon. The winter rains of the south, it may be remarked, thin off at about 3 

 or 4 north of Adelaide, rarely penetrating to latitude 28, and summer rains are 



