422 



repeated within a minute, it became apparent that the only 

 remedy was to walk. It may be added that walking was our 

 usual method of progression : riding was resorted to when 

 dreary barren wastes were being crossed, but it was just in 

 such uninteresting circumstances, with nothing to divert the 

 attention, that drowsiness was chiefly induced. 



Whereas the course of the camel train was, according to 

 circumstances, more or less a straight line, that of the 

 collectors was "here and there like a dog in a fair," and 

 would average at least ten miles to the camels' seven. 



(</) METEOROLOGY. 



By Edgar R. Waite, F.L.S., Director South Australian 



Museum. 



The ouly meteorological obervations regularly ' made 

 during the entire journey were those recorded by the aneroid 

 barometer, read twice daily, and the minimum thermometer. 

 As we travelled during the daytime it was not possible to 

 take maximum temperatures. As our barometric readings 

 cannot be corrected for altitude, they lose considerably in 

 scientific value; but we found the deviations extremely useful 

 as weather guides, and more than once were justified in having 

 arranged our movements as a result of the readings. On 

 one occasion the glass had fallen so low that although no rain 

 was falling, we decided to bide-a-wee, and within an hour 

 or two were glad that we had tents or tarpaulins over our 

 heads and belongings. At another time weather conditions 

 appeared very ominous, but trusting a rising glass ■ and 

 favourable wind we struck camp, and ere long bright sunshine 

 confirmed our trust. I may say, however, that almost at 

 the outset of the journey the aneroid remained so persistently 

 immovable for several days that, thinking its mechanism had 

 been upset by the jolting of the camels, I was on the point 

 of putting it aside as useless, when a slight change induced 

 me to give it a further trial, which proved that we had passed 

 through a period of remarkable equilibrium of pressure. 



I have at times been considerably interested in the 

 records of the minimum thermometer as obtained in sub- 

 antarctic areas, but I had not anticipated similar interest in 

 the readings made in such low latitude as the interior of 

 Australia. Though often warm or even hot in the daytime, 

 the temperature usually falls rapidly as "the sun drops 

 down the glowing sky," and once or twice the thermometer 



