144 AMERICAN LUMBER IN FOREIGN MARKETS. 



enables persons to bear the heat of summer and carry on their usual 

 pursuits with less inconvenience and discomfort than is felt in damp 

 climates, where the temperature may be 15 or 20 lower but nearly sat- 

 urated with aqueous vapors, as at Port Darwin, where during the 

 rainy season of the northwest monsoon the thermometer may stand at 

 only 88, whilst the wet bulb indicates 86. Such an atmosphere, we 

 need hardly say, is far more enervating than the hot and dry air of the 

 Adelaide plains. 77 



One peculiarity of the Australian climate is the occurrence of drought. 

 Droughts are either general, that is to say, they affect the whole of the 

 Australian continent in a greater or less degree, or they are partial, 

 that is confined within limited areas. South Australia is probably 

 more subject to visitations of this kind than other portions of Australia, 

 owing, to some extent, to the absence of high mountain ranges in the 

 interior. The causes of these droughts have been very carefully inves- 

 tigated by the official heads of the meteorological departments in the 

 principal colonies, and as far as their observations have been extended 

 they are generally in accord upon the subject. 



GENERAL, BUILDING. 



General buildin g is at a standstill at present. Those houses now being 

 erected consist of a small class of residences of about four rooms, built 

 of stone, of which the majority of buildings are constructed. 



The timber used in railroad building is grown locally, and is obtained 

 from South Australian Government forests, and consists chiefly of the 

 eucalyptus class. 



EXTENSIONS OF LUMBER TRADE. 



I can not offer any suggestion concerning the methods to increase 

 the lumber trade with this province, now already considerable. 



CHAS. A. MURPHY, 



ConsularAgent. 

 ADELAIDE, March 8, 1894. 



TASMANIA. 



NATIVE WOODS. 



The principal native woods of Tasmania are the various species of 

 gum (Eucalypti), the myrtle (Fagus cunninghami), the Huon or Mae- 

 quarie Harbor pine (Bacrydiumfrariklinii}, and the blackwoodor light- 

 wood (Acacia melanoxylon). 



The gum timber is all hard and dense. As a rule it shrinks con- 

 siderably, and warps and twists, and for interior work is used for floors 



