82 CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER 



the highest March (29*05 inches). At the end of May on 

 the Burdekin Delta — 150 miles to the south — the sugar- 

 cane was beginning to be affected by the hot, dry weather, 

 and irrigation was about to be resorted to. Here in 

 January it became necessary to repair the roof of the boat- 

 shed, and to keep the ridge covering of paper-bark in posi- 

 tion, two long saplings were tied parallel with the ridge 

 pole. At the end of May these saplings were taken down 

 in order that the whole of the thatch might be renovated, 

 when it was found that both had started to grow, several 

 of the shoots being 8 and 10 inches long. While sugar- 

 cane was languishing for lack of moisture, 1 $0 miles away 

 down the coast, a roughly-cut sapling exposed on the roof 

 of a building found the conditions for the beginning of a 

 new existence so favourable and stimulative that it had 

 budded as freely as Aaron's rod. " Through the scent of 

 water it had budded and brought forth boughs like a 

 plant." 



Nearly as much misapprehension prevails in the Southern 

 States of the Commonwealth as to the characteristics of 

 North Queensland as seems to prevail among the good old 

 folks "at home" as to Australia generally. If the few 

 facts presented excite even mild surprise, they will not be 

 altogether out of place in these pages. 



Dunk Island has a mean temperature of about 69 deg. ; 

 January is the hottest month, with a mean of 87 deg., and 

 July the coolest, mean 57 deg. Taking the official readings 

 of Cardwell (20 miles to the south), I find the greatest 

 extremes on record occurred in one year, when the highest 

 temperature was I03"3 deg. and the lowest 36*2 deg. At 

 Geraldton (25 miles to the north) the extremes were 96 deg. 

 and 43-4 deg. 



Rainfall and temperature, the proportion of clear to 

 cloudy skies, calms, the direction, strength and the duration 

 of winds, do not wholly comprehend distinctive climatic 

 features. There are other conditions of more or less 

 character and note, some hard to define, yet ever present. 

 Here the air is warm and soothing, seldom is it crisp and 



