72 PHENOMENALLY HIGH TEMPERATURES. 



occasional days, even in places situated in the tem- 

 perate zones. These cases are, however, of course 

 entirely exceptional. 



Some of these extreme temperatures which have 

 occasionally been registered, are so extraordinary, that 

 it may be desirable to quote a few instances of what 

 great heat can occasionally be like. South Australia 

 and Victoria, for instance are 



" subject to hot winds from the interior resembling the blast from 

 a furnace, and the thermometer rises to 115 Fahr. and 

 occasionally even higher." * " In the desert interior these hot 

 winds are still more severe. On one occasion Captain Sturt 

 hung a thermometer on a tree shaded from the sun and 

 wind, and it was graduated to 127 Fahr., yet the mercury 

 rose till it burst the tube. The heat therefore must have 

 been at least 128 Fahr., which if long continued, would 

 certainly destroy life. For three months Capt. Sturt found 

 the mean temperature to exceed 101 Fahr. in the shade. 

 Every screw came out of their boxes, the horn handles of 

 instruments and combs split up into fine laminae, the lead 

 dropped out of their pencils, the wool of sheep ceased to 

 grow, and their finger nails became brittle as glass." f In 

 Sindh also " We have a climate of intense heat from March 

 to November ; during the six hottest months in the year the 

 mean temperature in the shade is given as 98 5' Fahr., but 

 in Upper Sindh the thermometer sometimes registers 130 

 Fahr. in the shade." 



* During one of these hot winds, within our own experience, in 

 Australia, all china and glass in closed and shaded rooms felt hot to 

 the hand, as if it had been lately placed near a fire all water in jugs 

 was quite hot all bedclothes, clothing, etc., felt as if they had been 

 recently warmed before a fire. Everything in fact assumed a certain 

 temperature approximate to that of the atmosphere. 



j- Stanford's Compendium of Geography and Travel for Australia. 

 Edited by Alfred R. Wallace, 1883, p. 17 and following pages. 



Murray's Handbook for the Bombay Residency, 1881, p. 2. 



