BY JOHN TEBBUTT, JUN. 157 



in the year 1861. In glancing over the Adelaide observations, 

 the first bad weather which would particularly attract our 

 attention would perhaps be that of April 13th 18th. It appears 

 from Mr. Todd's observations, that after a fine day and nearly 

 cloudless night, the morning of the 13th at Adelaide was ushered 

 in with thin cirro-stratus cloud and a falling barometer, both 

 phenomena being marked characteristics of tropical currents of 

 air. During the night of the 12th the polar currents had failed, 

 and the opposite or tropical ones commenced. Northerly winds 

 prevailed on the 13th, 14th, and 15th, the barometer still falling, 

 with indications of heavy weather : the tropical winds were also 

 marked by the thermometer, the temperature being high on those 

 days. The lowest recorded reading of the barometer occurred at 

 6 p.m. on the 14th, being 29*523 (corrected for temperature). 

 On the morning of the 16th the tropical current was met and 

 overcome by its polar opponent, the wind changing to south- 

 west, the barometer rising, and the thermometer falling. Strong 

 gales and heavy weather from the polar quarter prevailed 

 throughout the colony of South Australia on the 16th, 17th, and 

 18th, moderating towards evening of the 18th. A heavy storm 

 of wind and rain swept over Melbourne and the adjacent country 

 in the afternoon of the 16th, which coming from a southerly 

 direction, appears from the newspaper accounts to have been 

 only a temporary advance of the polar current. We learn from a 

 telegram in the Herald of the 17th, that a N.N.E. gale with 

 squalls, was blowing at Melbourne at 8 p.m. on the 16th. Hence 

 it appears, that while the tropical current which had passed over 

 and altogether ceased at Adelaide, was prevailing at Melbourne, 

 the opposite or polar current was severely felt at the former 

 place. On the night of the 17th, however, Melbourne in its 

 turn experienced the conflict of the two great currents, in 

 the shape of violent westerly gales, trees being uprooted and 

 other damage done. It was in Bass' Straits during the fearful 

 weather of the 16th 18th that the ill-fated ship " Rembrandt " 

 foundered, taking down with her eleven out of the fifteen souls 

 she had on board. The newspapers describe these gales as being 

 remarkably violent. Now let us turn to the state of the weather 

 in our own colony. From the observations at the Sydney 



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