Hood. — On the Hot Winds of Canterbury and Hawke Bay. 109 



are all the year round under the influence of the rain-bearing westerly winds. 

 On the coasts of New Zealand there cannot be said to be any prevailing one j 

 and if it owes nothing to those passing over the adjacent continent of 

 Australia, some other cause must be shown for the westerly ones which reach 

 its shores being so much moister than the equally strong easterly gales. 



In summer, during the quiet beautiful mornings, under the powerful rays 

 of the sun, the radiated heat over the dry plains of Canterbury raises the 

 temperature to an extent scarcely to be expected in that latitude, and the 

 lower strata of air become quickly rarified; about mid-day red clouds of dust 

 are seen filling the gorges of the great rivers, by which they debouch from 

 the mountains, and the current rushes down over the plains to fill the vacuum, 

 acquiring by its rapid motion somewhat the character of a hot wind. But 

 these are merely local blasts, of short duration, and as evening approaches all 

 again is calm and still, and no rain has fallen on the mountains. 



It is very different, however, on the occasions when the north-westers blow 

 intermittently for several days and nights over the Canterbury levels, and, 

 in a lesser degree, over those of Hawke Bay, withering the vegetation, 

 crisping the leaves of succulent plants, so that they may be rubbed up like dry 

 tinder, and exercising a most depressing effect upon the energies of animals as 

 well as those of human beings. 



Then torrents of rain are being discharged upon the forest-clad mountains 

 of Westland, and floods in the rivers running to the East Coast announce the 

 melting of the snows in the higher regions. When telegraphic communication 

 is established between the two countries we shall be able to ascertain the rate 

 at which these winds travel over the intervening*sea. 



Meantime I have ascertained for certain that when hot winds have pre- 

 vailed to any extent in the southern parts of the Australian continent, their 

 influence has generally been extended to the shores of New Zealand, and 

 that it is not merely upon the occasion of such a hurricane as swept the 

 dust and ashes of the conflagrations which occurred on that terrific day known 

 as " Black Thursday" in Victoria across the ocean, and darkened the air in 

 Otago, that the denizens of these islands are affected by the same influences as 

 the dwellers on the banks of the Murray and Darling rivers. 



What are properly called hot winds do not generally blow up to the tropic 

 in either hemisphere. On the eastern coasts of Australia they do not extend 

 their influence much beyond the 28th parallel of latitude. In Queensland I 

 can, from many years' personal experience, state that they are almost unknown, 

 even on its southern borders at Darling Downs. 



If we take the next eight or ten degrees as the zone of their greatest 

 strength, and extend W.N.W. parallels (which is nearly the course in which 



