KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



17 



THE CLIMATE OF AUSTRALIA. 



Oh, absence ! by thy stem decree, 

 How many a heart, once light and free, 



Is filled with doubts and fears ! 

 Thy days like tedious weeks do seem ; 

 Thy weeks, slow-moving months we deem, — 



Thy months, long-lingering years ! 



J. T. Watson. 



Though I am forced thus to absent myself 

 From all I love, I shall contrive some means, 

 Some friendly intervals, to chat with thee. 



Southern. 



INGULAR indeed is a man's des- 

 tiny ! Here to-day, tie is, literally 

 speaking, gone to-morrow ; leaving 

 behind him, perhaps, from positive 

 necessity, much, if not all, that his 

 heart holds dear. This country 

 bids fair to be decimated within 

 another year. Let us hope that a 

 rapid transit of letters, to and from, will cause many 

 " twin hearts" to be saved from destruction. Ab- 

 sence from " a lov'd one" is — " death." 



So very many of our acquaintances are daily 

 departing to Australia, that we begin now to feel 

 some peculiar interest for the country. Let us, 

 therefore, hear what Mr. Lancelott says of the cli- 

 mate. As he is mineralogical surveyor for the 

 colonies, the authority may be considered first- 

 rate. 



" The seasons in Australia are the reverse of ours, 

 July is mid-winter, January niicPsSmmer. The 

 spring and autumn are very brief, and the transi- 

 tion from one season to the other is so imperceptible, 

 that it is difficult to say when the one begins or 

 the other ends. 



Spring sets in early in September, when jhe 

 atmosphere acquires a delightful warmth ; as the 

 season advances,' the fall of rain decreases, the heat 

 increases, and about the middle of November, sum- 

 mer commences. The heat now becomes great ; 

 and by the end of December, nearly all the rivers 

 are dried up, vegetation has ceased, and the 

 country assumes the appearance of an arid desert. 

 At the close of February, a diminution of tempera- 

 ture commences ; autumn beginning about the mid- 

 dle of March, and early in April genial showers 

 carpet the country with bright verdure, and the 

 atmosphere becomes pleasantly cool and buoy- 

 ant. Early in June, the season that can only 

 be called winter from its situation in the calendar, 

 commences ; and by the middle of July, torrents 

 of rain have inundated the country, and rendered 

 the water-courses mighty, rushing streams ; this 

 cold rainy season generally terminates by the mid- 

 dle or end of August. Between the rains at this 

 season of the year, there are days, and, in some 

 years, whole weeks together, of delightful weather; 

 cool and bracing as the spring in England, but 

 more beautiful and exhilirating. 



With the exception of about twenty-five ex- 

 tremely hot days, and sixty disagreeable wet or 

 cold days, the weather throughout the year is in- 

 describably pleasant, the air is balmy and bright, 

 scarcely a cloud is visible, and the sun looks down 

 from the deep blue sky in unveiled splendor. The 

 rising sun. is a sight most truly beautiful. The god 

 of day from his eastern portals bursts the ebon pall 

 of night, and flinging wide the purple and Vermil- 



lion curtain-clouds of morn, illumines the moun- 

 tains with molten gold, dispensing life and light 

 around, as he majestically mounts into the north- 

 ern heavens. 



At the decline of day the scene is magnificent! 

 Onward the mighty orb rolls, like a ball of molten 

 iron, to the legion of gorgeous clouds that have 

 risen in the far- west to herald it away ; the hills 

 blaze up with crimson and gold, fringed with spark- 

 ling silver, the tints of heaven's own iris are scat- 

 tered over the sky, and the extended plains to the 

 very horizon are tinged with pink. Even the 

 cities and dwelling-places are colored with the rich, 

 changing hues ; and from their windows are seen 

 streams of liquid fire. Day and night are of nearly 

 equal length throughout the year. The sun never 

 remains above the horizon more than fourteen and 

 a half hours, nor less than ten and a half ; and, as 

 twilight does not linger in these latitudes, the 

 changes from day to night, and from night to morn, 

 are to an Englishman unpleasantly abrupt. The 

 greater number of the nights are most enchanting. 

 The southern constellations shine forth from the 

 hard, dark heavens, in unrivalled brightness, and 

 the haloed moon pours her chastened radiance on 

 the plains and hills with such refulgence, that every 

 thing for miles around is distinctly visible. 



The light of both the sun and the moon is more 

 intense than in Britain. I should say the differ- 

 ence is as five to three. The climate throughout 

 the Australian province is decidedly hot. The 

 thermometer in Sydney and Melbourne during 

 summer, frequently reaches 90° or 100° Fahr. in 

 the shade ; and occasionally 115° or even more. 

 In winter it rarely ranges below 46° Fahr. ; hoar 

 frost sometimes occurs ; ice, seldom or never. The 

 variations in temperature are great and sudden ; 

 noonday is frequently 20° hotter than morning or 

 evening, while the heat of one day often differs 

 from that of the next day by 15°. Then, as the 

 southerly winds are altogether more moist than 

 those of the northward, a change of wind without 

 any alteration in the thermometer often chills se- 

 verely ; indeed, the climate is much affected by 

 the direction of the winds. That which blows 

 from the northward, is extremely dry and often 

 violent. 



In winter it is moderately warm, in summer it 

 is intensely hot, and rushes on with the velocity 

 of a hurricane ; raising the thermometer in the 

 shade to 110° or even 120° Fahr. , drying up the 

 grass like hay, depriving the grape of its watery 

 elements, rendering iron exposed to its influence 

 so hot as to burn the hand on touching it, doing 

 injury to the promising harvest, and filling the 

 air with such quantities of dust and sand, that the 

 sun's rays are shut, and only darkness is visible. 

 The current of heated air appears confined to no 

 particular altitude, but rushes upwards or down- 

 wards, according to circumstances ; sometimes it 

 assumes a rotary movement, as if revolving on a 

 series of horizontal axes, thus : HUM ; or undulates 

 thus : ~~~~~>~~~w— «~— Occasionally the hot 

 wind travels so slowly, that its movement is 

 scarcely perceptible ; there is then little dust, 

 the heat of the sun's rays is great, and the 

 earth is so torrid, that a thermometer which 

 I sunk horizontally into the ground to the 

 depth of 2 g- inches, in a situation exposed to the 

 sun and wind, stood at 150° Fahr. On another 



Vol. III.— 2. 



