26o 



NA TURE 



[January 12, 1893 



In works of reference, Australia generally is credited with 

 heat in excess of that due to its latitude. It is difficult to say 

 why, unless it arose from a habit of one of our early explorers 

 who carried a thermometer and carefully published all the high, 

 and none of the low readings he got, until, fortunately for the 

 colony, the thermometer was broken and the unfair register 

 stopped. But not only the interior — Sydney even to the 

 present day is credited, in standard works of reference, with a 

 mean temperature of 66 '2°, or more than three degrees higher 

 than the true mean, which is 62"9°. Such an error is not ex- 

 cusable when meteorological observations have been taken and 

 published for just iorty years. There is another error made 

 by some writers when describing Australia. It is shown by 

 them inverted on the corresponding latitudes in Europe, and 

 the reader naturally infers that Australia is as hot as those 

 parts of Europe. Confining our attention to New South 

 Wales, that is between 29° and 37° of south latitude, we find 

 that generally it is cooler than a corresponding part of Eutope. 

 The mean temperature of the southern parts of England is 

 about 52°, and that of France, near Paris, about the same, in- 

 creasing as you go south to 58-5° at Marseilles. Taking this 

 as a sample of the best part of Europe, let us see how the 

 mean temperatures in the colony compare with those : Kiandra, 

 our coldest township, situated on a mountain, is 46^ ; Cooma, 

 on the high land, 54° ; Queanbeyan, high land, 58° ; Goulburn, 

 high land, 56° ; Armidale and New England district, 56" ; 

 Moss Vale, 56° ; Kurrajong, 53° ; Orange, 55°. These towns 

 are scattered along the high table-lands from south to north, 

 and represent fairly the climate of a very considerable portion 

 of the whole colony. Next to this in point of temperature is 

 the strip of land between the ocean and the mountains, and 

 which is affected by the cooling sea-breezes. Here we have a 

 mean temperature ranging from 60° at Eden, the most southern 

 port, to 68° at Grafton, one of the northern ports. Sydney, in 

 latitude 34°, has a summer temperature only four degrees 

 warmer than Paris, which is in latitude 49°. Now the usual 

 difference for a degree in latitude is a degree in temperature, 

 and therefore, if Sydney were as much warmer than Paris as its 

 latitude alone would lead us to expect, its temperature should 

 be 74°, and that is 15° warmer than Paris ; but as we have 

 seen, it is only 4° warmer. This single example is enough to 

 prove the comparative coolness of our coast districts. The in- 

 vestigation made during recent years shows that the mean 

 temperature of the whole colony, as derived from forty- five 

 stations scattered over it, is 59 "S", three degrees lower than 

 that of Sydney, or only one degree hotter than that of Paris. 



It may be mentioned that the highest shade temperature ever 

 recorded in Sydney was 106-9°, and near Paris a temperature of 

 106 '5° has been recorded. 



The third great district, consisting of lower land and plains 

 to the west of the mountains, has a climate considerably warmer 

 in summer than the parts above described, owing to the 

 powerful effect of the sun on land having little forest and little 

 or no wind ; but in winter the temperature sinks down much 

 lower than the coast districts, owing to the great radiation ; so 

 that the annual mean temperature is not so great as the summer 

 heats would lead one to anticipate, A table has been pre- 

 pared for the purpose of showing by comparison with many 

 places in Europe and America the temperature of the colony. 

 The places have been arranged in order of temperature, taking for 

 that purpose the mean annual temperature. This shows at once 

 that the range of temperature here is equivalent to that offered by 

 Europe from the north of England through France to Sicily. 

 Such a range is more remarkable, because if New South Wales 

 were placed on the map of Europe according to its latitude it 

 would extend from Sicily to Cairo, whereas when placed by its 

 temperature it stretches as we have seen from Sicily northwards 

 to England. Nor is this all that the table shows us. For even 

 when we find a place in Europe with a temperature equal to 

 that of some place here, it is at once observed that the summer 

 temperature in Europe is warmer than the colonial one and the 

 winter colder ; for instance, Naples, 60-3° ; Eden, 60-3'' ; 

 summer at Naples, 74 V ; at Eden, 67-9°; winter at Naples, 

 47-6' ; Eden, 51-9 ; and so generally the southern country has 

 the cooler and more uniform temperature. It is worthy of 

 remark that the only places here of equal mean and summer 

 temperature with places in Europe are those which are to be 

 found on the western plains, as at Wagga Wagga, which has a 

 mean temperature of 60*3° ; Naples, 60-3°; and summer tem- 

 perature of both is 74° ; or again, to compare the places of the 



NO. I 2 II, VOL. 47] 



same or nearly the same latitude, Messina, in Sicily, latitude 

 38° 11', has a mean temperature of 66°, summer 72-2°, winter 

 55° ; Eden, New South Wales, in latitude 37°, has a mean 

 temperature of 603°, summer 679°, winter 5i'9°; o! Cairo, 

 in latitude 30°, mean of 72°, summer 85 1°, winter 58'2°; 

 Grafton, latitude 29° 45', mean 68'i°, Fummer 76 8°, winter 

 584°. It is useless to multiply examples, — we have here 

 enough to show how much cooler Australia really is than the 

 fervid imaginations of some writers have made it appear in 

 print. 



Looking at this question of temperature generally, it will 

 be seen that New South Wales is no exception to the general 

 deduction of science that the southern lands are cooler than 

 those of corresponding latitudes in the north, and it is only 

 during hot winds, which are very rare in New South Wales, 

 that the temperature rises to extremes. But to leave Europe, 

 and compare the climate of New South Wales with that of 

 America. Our limits of latitude would place us from W^ashing- 

 ton to New Orleans. Now the mean temperature at Washington 

 is 55° and at New Orleans 68°, while that of Eden is 60*3° and 

 Grafton 68'l° ; so that if mean temperature were a complete 

 test of climate it would appear that our coast is hotter than 

 corresponding latitudes in America. But mean temperature is 

 not enough ; we must compare the summer and winter tempera- 

 tures ; and summer at Washington rises to 767° and at Eden 

 only to 67*9°, 9° cooler ; New Orleans summer is 82° and 

 Grafton 76"8° ; but 82° hardly represents the summer heat at 

 New Orleans, for it is a steady broil, during which every day 

 for three months of summer the heat is over 80°, a temperature 

 that is only reached on this coast during hot winds, or in other 

 words, very seldom. But winter temperature at Washington 

 falls to 37 '8°, and at New Orleans to 56° ; at EHen 51 9°, and 

 at Grafton 58 "4°. Hence it is evident that on this coast the 

 heat is very much less in summer and greater in winter than 

 upon the coast of America. Such facts place the colony in a 

 very different position in regard to climate from that which it 

 has occupied in published works, for instead of being a hot 

 country we see that its coast districts are much cooler than 

 corresponding latitudes in Europe and America, and that in its 

 elevated districts, which comprise a large part of it and much 

 of the best land, it has a climate no warmer than the best and 

 most enjoyable parts of Europe in much higher latitudes ; but 

 while bringing these facts into due prominence it is not the 

 intention to deny that another considerable part of the colony, 

 forming the western plains, is subject to greater heat, caused, 

 no doubt, by the sun's great power on treeless plains, and the 

 almost total absence of cooling winds ; yet, although in summer 

 the temperature here frequently rises over 100°, and sometimes 

 up to 120°, yet, owing to the cold at nij^ht and in winter, the 

 mean temperatures are not greater than those of corresponding 

 latitudes in the northern hemisphere ; and this part of the 

 colony being remarkably dry, the great heat is by no means so 

 enervating as a temperature of 80° in the moist atmo-phere of 

 the coast, and, what is of still more importance, it does not 

 produce those terrible diseases which are usually the offspring 

 of hot countries. This is also, no doubt, due to the dryness of 

 the air. Stock of all kinds thrive remarkably well, and are 

 very free from disease in those hot western districts. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



The Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science for August 

 1892 contains : — On the anatomy of Pentastovtum teretiusculum 

 (Baird), by Prof. W. Baldwin Spencer, M. A. (Plates i, to ix.). 

 Whilst collecting on Kings Island, which lies to the west of 

 Bass Straits, half-way between the mainland of Victoria and 

 Tasmania, numerous specimens of the copper-hsad snake 

 {Hoplocephalus superbus) were found, in the lungs of which a 

 large species of Pentastomum were para>itic ; afterwards the 

 same parasite was discovered in the lungs of the black snake 

 (Pseudechys porphyi'iacus) in Victoria; on examination there 

 seemed little doubt but that the species was the one described 

 by Baird long ago (1862) from specimens obtained in the mouth 

 of a dead copper-head snake in the Zoological Gardens, London, 

 under the name of Pent, teretiusculum. In this paper we have 

 a very complete account of the anatomy of this form, there 

 being descriptions and figures of its external anatomy, schematic 



