134 Notes on the Meteorology 



feet, the September frosts, which might prove injurious in 

 the lowlands, are not so much so at these elevations. The 

 month of July is noted for severe and successive hard frosts, 

 the minimum temperature during such frosts ranging from 

 32° to 19° Fahr. It is possible that the occurrence during 

 September of occasionally severe frosts has led to the state- 

 ments of the early pastoral settlers as to the uncertainty of 

 cereal growths. These facts serve to support the opinion of 

 the Surveyor- General and late Secretary for Mines, as quoted 

 at the commencement of this paper. It is only in the valleys 

 that the severest frosts take place. I have observed lowland 

 exotic plants flourishing on the ridges which perished under 

 extreme frost in the valleys, the temperature being more 

 equable at the former habitat than in. the latter. 



Temperature. 



The range of temperature at sub-alpine elevations is 

 apparently large, while the rapidity of the changes increases 

 with the elevation (see remarks on Climate at 5000 feet, 

 p. 141). The mean annual temperature deduced from the 

 following table gives 53° 34', almost the same as at Ballarat,* 

 although there is probably a greater absolute range of 

 annual temperature at Omeo than at the former place. The 

 highest recorded temperature in the shade at Omeo for tlie 

 period herein discussed occurred on the 21st January, 1880, 

 when the maximum thermometer registered 105° at 1.30 

 p.m. ; and the lowest in July. 1883, at 6.10 a.m. — the 

 occasion of a severe frost, when the minimum thermometer 

 registered 19° Fahr., or 13° below freezing point — or an 

 absolute range of 128°, nearly as large as Chicago, Illinois, 

 America.*)* 



* Exhib. Essays, p, 5. 

 t Loomis' Met., p. 272. 



