NEW SOUTH WALES. 135 



These hot winds come from the direction of the Blue Mountains, 

 and, what seems remarkable, are not felt on the other side of the 

 mountains, or in their immediate vicinity. Yet the extent between 

 the coast and the mountains is not sufficient to produce these winds, 

 being only forty-five miles ; and if they proceed from the interior, 

 they must pass over those mountains, an elevation in some places of 

 three thousand four hundred feet. Their great destructiveness is 

 undoubtedly caused by their capacity for moisture, although few 

 observations have as yet (as far as I was able to obtain information) 

 been made upon them, except in relation to the blight they occasion. 

 It has been found that fields which have a line of woods on the side 

 whence they blow, escape injury. The harvest immediately on the 

 line of the coast does not suffer so much, being exempted in part 

 from their withering influence by the moisture that is imbibed from 

 the sea. 



There is a portion of this country that is an exception to the 

 general rule of aridity, namely, the district of Illawarra. This forms 

 a belt of from one to ten miles wide, and has the range of the 

 Kangaroo Hills just behind it, of one thousand feet ; these are suffi- 

 ciently high at this distance from the coast to condense the moisture, 

 and also to protect the district from the blighting effects of the 

 blasts from the interior. 



One is entirely unprepared for the alleged facts in relation to this 

 country ; for instance, Mitchell in his journey to the south and west, 

 during the four winter months, witnessed no precipitation of moisture 

 except frosts in the mornings, and the thermometer was often below 

 the freezing point. Violent winds occur, which have obtained the 

 name of brick-fielders. They are nothing more than a kind of gust 

 peculiar to the environs of Sydney, after a sultry day. During one of 

 these gusts little or no rain falls, though the wind frequently ap- 

 proaches a hurricane in force. These winds get their name from 

 bringing the dust from the brick-fields, formerly in the suburbs of 

 Sydney, but which are now almost entirely built over. The tempera- 

 ture during the blow generally falls twenty or twenty-five degrees, 

 in the space of as many minutes; the dust is very great, and the 

 wind so strong, as to cause apprehension lest the houses should be 

 unroofed, or the chimneys thrown down. Our standard barometer 

 was carefully watched during the coming on of two of these 

 gusts, and found to fall 0-200 in. : the first time, and the second only 

 0-020 in. : but the temperature fell each time about ten degrees. They 



vol. 11. 47 



