HOT WINDS IN AUSTRALIA. QI 



the question to go into here, even had we the technical 

 data to enable us to do it. 



We may, however, point out that substantially the 

 same phenomena are witnessed, where there is land, 

 in the southern hemisphere. We refer to the hot 

 winds which constitute a remarkable feature in the 

 meteorology of Australia, whose temperature on the 

 inland plains often for days together reaches from 

 1 10 to 1 1 6 Fahr. * These great currents of heated air 

 "are evidently produced by the sinking down of the N.W. cur- 

 rent of heated air which is always passing overhead." " That 

 there is a constant current overhead from N.W. to S.E., may 

 be traced day after day, and month after month, by the small 

 clouds which mark its lower limits passing in ceaseless streams 

 to the S.E. The great interior plains, which are almost treeless 

 and waterless, act in summer like a great oven ; and thus become 

 the chief motor force of Australian winds, by causing an 

 uprush, and consequent inrush on all sides, especially on the 

 N.W., where it has sufficient power to draw the S.E. 

 trade wind over the equator, and convert it into a N.W. 

 monsoon" which "forms part of the great return current 

 from the equator towards the South Pole. " f 



These remarks upon winds naturally lead us to the 

 consideration of rains, a product of wind, and as those 

 occurring at irregular intervals in the temperate zone 

 present no feature of very special importance, we shall 

 mainly confine our remarks to the far more remarkable 

 phenomena attending the bursting of the monsoons 

 and other periodical rains in countries which possess 

 regular hot and dry seasons. 



We have already alluded to the disastrous effects 



* Stanford's Compendium of Geography and Travel for Australia, 

 edited by A. R. Wallace, 1883, p. 29. 

 f Ibid., p. 30. 



