•436 Transactions. — Ceology. 



the moisture of our north-west winds, to have overlooked the fact, that the 

 great equatorial current of the South Pacific, after flowing in a broad stream 

 down the eastern coasts of Australia and Tasmania, curves to the northward, 

 in which direction it flows along, but at some distance from the western coast 

 of New Zealand still possessing a temperature of 68° of Fahrenheit. It must 

 not be forgotten, moreover, that the northern point of New Zealand lies 

 within 600 miles of the tropic of Capricorn, and within 300 miles of the 

 southern belt of calms, whilst the climate of the whole (as the following extract 

 from a publication on New Zealand, to which Dr. Hector contributed this 

 portion of its matter, will show) is generally milder than that of corresponding 

 latitudes in Europe : — 



" The changes of weather and temperature [in New Zealand] are very sud- 

 den ; calms and gales, rain and sunshine, heat and cold often alternating so 

 frequently and suddenly as to defy previous calculation, so that there cannot 

 be said to be any uniformly wet or dry season in the year. But, although 

 these changes are sudden and frequent, they are confined within very naiTOw 

 limits, the extreme of daily temperature only varying throughout the year by 

 an average of twenty degrees, whilst in Europe (at Rome and at other places 

 of corresponding latitude with New Zealand) the same variation amounts to 

 or exceeds thirty degrees. In respect to temperature, New Zealand may be 

 compared either with England or with Italy, but London is seven degrees 

 colder than the North, and four degrees colder than the South Island of 

 New Zealand, and is less moist. 



" The mean annual temperature of the North Island is 57 degrees, and of 

 the South Island 52 degrees, that of London and New York being 51 degrees, 

 whilst at Edinburgh it is only 47 degrees, the heat in summer being tempered 

 by the almost continual breezes, and the winter cold being not nearly so 

 severe as at any of the above mentioned places, except in the uplands and 

 extreme south. 



"The mean temperature of the diflferent seasons for the whole colony is, in 

 spring, 55 degrees; in summer, 63 degrees; in autumn, 57 degrees; and in 

 winter, 48 degrees ; January and February, corresj^onding to July and August 

 in New Zealand, and July and August, corresponding to January and 

 February in England, the two coldest, except in Nelson and Wellington, at 

 which places the mean temperature is lowest in June and July. 



*' At Taranaki the climate is remarkably equable, as snow never falls near 

 the coast. At Wellington it is very variable, and subject to frequent gusts of 

 wind from the hills which surround the harbour. 



" Nelson enjoys a sheltered position and a clear sky. In Canterbury the 

 seasons are more distinctly marked, the frost in " winter being occasionally 

 severe (although it never freezes all day near the coast) and the heat in 



