THE NEW COLONY 333 



visitation of Black Thursday brought many stalwart workers to the 

 verge of ruin, and left a haunting sense of danger which drove 

 numbers of the settlers into the town to labour at perhaps less con- 

 genial but also less risky avocations. The only considerable portion 

 of the country which did not suffer was the interior of Gipps Land, 

 where the plains had retained their green mantle and the rivers 

 gave such an abundant water supply. But even here the black 

 clouds of smoke from the surrounding ranges covered the land with 

 a pall denser than a total eclipse, and greatly alarmed the settlers 

 in the belief that some mysterious convulsion of Nature was about 

 to overtake them. 



In Melbourne the day opened with a scorching north wind and 

 a cloudless sky. Under the influence of the fierce sirocco the city 

 was soon enveloped in blinding dust and by eleven o'clock the 

 thermometer marked 117 in the shade. By midday rolling 

 volumes of smoke began to converge on the city, and out-door life 

 became intolerable. The streets were almost deserted, a dull sense 

 of suffocation oppressed even those who cowered in the coolest 

 recesses of their homes and anxiously asked what it meant. For- 

 tunately no fire broke out near the city, for had it once started, in 

 all probability the whole place would have fallen. With the sunset 

 came a change of wind to the south, and anxious crowds gathered 

 towards nightfall on the summits of Batman's Hill and The Flag- 

 staff reserve, to note with awe and wonder the red glare that 

 marked the Dandenong Ranges and illuminated the whole northern 

 horizon. The change in the wind relieved them from all fears for the 

 city, but it was not until two or three days later that the extent of 

 the devastation became even approximately known. The heaviest 

 losses in stock fell upon the squatters, who, as a rule, were best 

 able -to bear them ; but there were scores of cases of struggling 

 farmers reduced to destitution, for whom the sympathies of the 

 citizens went out, and a Relief Committee was promptly organised, 

 which collected something over 3,000 to meet cases of urgent 

 distress. 



Bush fires, even on a large scale, have often been known in 

 Victoria since, but the gradual clearing of the forests and the 

 increasing extent of land under cultivation have tended materially 



