160 HENRY A. HUNT. 



description will be found in the Scottish Meteorological Journal, 

 Vol. v., No. lx. 5 p 335. 



A DESCRIPTION OP A BURSTER WRITTEN EIGHTEEN YEARS SINCE. 



The following description of the southerly burster is taken from 

 « The Climate of New South Wales," by Mr. H. C. Russell, b.a., 

 The passage in question contains the best description of it that I 

 have met with, and it is the more interesting as being one of the 

 first accounts published by any scientific observer of this interest- 

 ing phenomenon. It is as follows : — " If in fine north-east hot 

 weather the barometer falls fast in the forenoon, a southerly wind 

 (burster) may be expected before night ; if the day is very hot 

 the change will come sooner ; and if the barometer is falling very 

 fast and clouds be seen in the west, a thunderstorm may be 

 expected in the afternoon. Sometimes the thunderstorm bursts 

 first, and the wind sets in from south afterwards ; if only the storm 

 comes it will probably be hot again next day. 



" Southerly bursters are generally to be expected from November 

 to the end of February ; they are always attended with strong 

 electrical excitement, a stream of sparks being sometimes produced 

 for an hour at the electrometer at the ends of the exploring wire. 

 The approach of the true burster is indicated by a peculiar roll of 

 clouds, which when once seen cannot be mistaken ; it is just above 

 the south horizon, and extends on either side of it 15° or 20°, and 

 looks as if a thin sheet of cloud were being rolled up like a scroll 

 by the advancing wind. 



Clouds of dust, which penetrate everwhere, announce the arrival 

 of the wind, scud flies by overhead with great rapidity, being 

 sometimes less than two thousand feet high ; rain may follow, but 

 if so, thunder and lighting come first. The velocity of wind is, 

 in most cases, greatest within the first two hours, and varies from 

 thirty to seventy miles per hour, but is usually from fifty to sixty 

 and the rate of progress along the coast about forty miles per hour. 

 The change of wind is sometimes very sudden ; it may be fresh 

 north-east, and in ten minutes a gale from south, hence vessels 

 not on the lookout are sometimes caught unprepared, and suffer 



