• METEOP.OLOGICAL PEEIODICITT. 165 



autumn, a dry spring, and then rain in tlie early summer, like 

 other years in the series. 



The droughts also show themselves very remarkably — 1865-6, 

 1846-7, 1827-8, 1808-1809, 1789-1790. 



So, of the well-known three years drought, it appears first in 

 1799, 1800, 1801 ; in 1818, 1819, 1820 ; in 1837, 38, 39 ; in 1856, 

 57, 58 ; and lastly in 1875, 1876 ; of 1877- we have yet to learn 

 the character. In 1819 there were some very severe floods, and 

 so in 1876 have we had similar heavy floods in some parts of the 

 country, and so the great floods of 1809 find their representatives 

 in 1866, fifty-seven years afterwards.* 



Heavy floods are not always an indication of a w^et year, very 

 often they come in droughts, and naturally follow the great dis- 

 turbances which then take place between the polar and equa- 

 torial currents ; moreover, our rivers are so situated with respect 

 to the mountains, that a heavy thunderstorm may make a floods 

 and in proof of this it may be stated that the first flood that ever 

 alarmed the Hawkesbury settlers in 1799 came down on them 

 without even an appearance of rain preceding it. 



In looking at these droughts which are recorded, it is worth 

 while to notice one or two of the traditions of the blacks. When 

 Singleton was first settled, in 1821, the aborigines told the 

 settlers that long before, there was a fearful drought, in which 

 all the lower part of the Hunter Kiver dried up, and the only 

 place they could obtain water was at the head of the river, 

 amongst the mountain springs ; that here all the tribes — even 

 those who bore each other the greatest enmity — collected, and 

 for sake of dear life lived peaceably for the time. Still the 

 drought dragged on. All the great gum-trees died, and vast num- 

 bers of the blacks, who were buried by their friends in a great 

 field. In proof of these statements, the graves and dead trees still 

 standing in 1822 were shown to the whites. f We may here recall 



* Droughts are a much more marked feature of climate than floods, for 

 floods are often the product of a great storm, and some of the greatest 

 have come in notably dry years. Even in the fearfully dry ye^r 1862 

 there was very heavy rain in February, and in 1865, a memorable year of 

 drought, 9 '877 in. fell in November, and of this 4 inches fell in one day. So 

 in June, 1866, 3 inches fell on the 15th ; so of 1849, 5*610 in. fell in May, 

 and of this 2*640 in. fell in one day. 



t In confirmation of the tradition of the blacks, it may be mentioned that 

 a keen observer, who was sent by Captain King from Sydney to Melbourne 

 along the coast, in 1802, says — " All the great gum trees were dead in every 

 place I visited, and especially on Elephant Island, here I saw enormous 

 dead trees, 5 to 6 feet in diameter, surrounded by a dense forest of young 

 trees from 6 to 18 inches in diameter, these were only two or three feet 

 apart, while of the old big trees there were only about twenty to the 

 acre." The young trees were just such a growth as might be expected in 

 that rich soil in the forty or fiftj" years which had probably elapsed since 

 the great drought. 



