Ringwood. — On Red Sunsets. 397 



in that continent, the weather was fine, clear, hot without rain, giving me 

 the idea that the sun had less power than usual, consequently the north- 

 west monsoon was very feeble, not penetrating far inland, the result being 

 that the interior of Australia has undergone one of the most disastrous 

 droughts on record. But now that, as we may suppose, the equatorial regions 

 of the atmosphere have parted with the greater part of their dust, if not 

 all, the sun has regained his usual power, and the north-west monsoon 

 its usual strength, penetrating the heart of Australia with refreshing rains 

 and thunderstorms. So we have here an instance of a most terrific pheno- 

 menon that not only brought death and destruction to thousands at the 

 time, but that indirectly caused the death of thousands and thousands of 

 cattle through drought ; and it would be most interesting and instructive to 

 learn whether or not such consequences were experienced in other parts of 

 the southern hemisphere. 



It would be beyond the province of this paper to enter on a history of the 

 tidal and atmospheric waves that resulted from this eruption, but 1 will state 

 two facts to finally clinch your mind of its magnitude. When the earth opened 

 her mouth and swallowed that vast quantity of water the down-rush that ac- 

 companied the closing-in of the surrounding crust was so much as to produce 

 a tidal wave that passed and repassed twice, I believe, round the globe. The 

 other fact is, that the tremendous explosion that accompanied the final erup- 

 tion produced such a vacuum as to cause atmospheric waves to start, and 

 which traversed and retraversed the earth to the antipodes of Java no less than 

 four times. Some astronomers have thought that the whole phenomenon 

 may be accounted for by supposing the earth to be passing through a dense 

 meteoric track. To my mind, however, the greatest difficulties brought to 

 bear against the volcanic theory are child's play when compared with the 

 possibility, about ten thousand millions to one, of a meteoric track so 

 formed as to have its path, either at perihelion or aphelion, so remarkably 

 co-incident with that of the earth as to keep company with her for seven 

 or eight months. Besides, if it were either meteoric or cosmic dust it 

 would have been seen all over the earth at the same time and would be 

 visible all night. No, the only extra-terrestrial argument that would bear 

 investigation is that of its belonging to the phenomenon of the zodiacal 

 light, which argument, I believe, was adopted by my friend Charles Todd, 

 of Adelaide, at first; but, as time goes on and more information is gathered, 

 the volcanic theory, I believe, will be finally accepted. 



