72 THE CLIMATE OF AUSTRALASIA 



in the following remarkable passage : " There 

 is a toy, which I have heard, and I would not 

 have it given over, but waited upon a little. 

 They say it is observed in the Low Countries 

 (I know not in what part), that every five and 

 thirty years the same kind and sute of years 

 and weathers comes about again ; as great 

 frosts, great wet, great droughts, warm winters, 

 summers with little heat, and the like ; and 

 they call it the prime ; it is a thing I do the 

 rather mention, because, computing backwards, 

 I have found some concurrence." 



Australia has also contributed to the evidence 

 in favour of the Bruckner period. Mr. Charles 

 Egeson, of Sydney, a clear-sighted meteorolo- 

 gist, found by a study of some of the 

 meteorological elements for Sydney for the 

 month of April, that they varied in a cycle of 

 from 33 to 34 years. Mr. Egeson's conclusions 

 are of especial interest, as they were published* 

 two years before the appearance of Bruckner's 

 great work. 



CHAPTER VII. THE LOCKYERS' LAW OF 

 FAMINE RECURRENCE IN INDIA. 



The Australian weather records, however 

 are not in a suitable form for satisfactory 

 treatment, and I, at least, have not had time to 



* C. Egeson, " Weather System of Sunspot Causality," Sydney, 1889. 



