260 A. LIVERSIDGE. 



One of the earliest accounts of dust storms in Australia 

 is given by Strelecki in his "New South Wales and Van 

 Diemen's Land," published in 1845, he says : — 



" In sailing from New Zealand to New South Wales in the 

 "Justine," I was prevented making the harbour of Port Jackson 

 for two successive days by the violence of the hot wind. The 

 distance from the shore, on the parallel of Sydney, was sixty 

 miles, and the heat exceeded 90°. The lee sails and reefs of 

 the "Justine " were covered with a quantity of impalpable dust, 

 which was at first mistaken for ashes, but, on examination proved 

 to be sancl, containing one-fourth of aluminous and three-fourths 

 of siliceous and metallic matter. Those who shape their course to 

 the East Indies, by way of Cape Verd Islands, may have seen the 

 same effect produced by the north-east African hot wind." 



The following account was addressed to Mr. Russell : — 

 "Times Office, Murrurundi, Oct. 21st, 1876. 



So far as I have been able to ascertain, the dry fog was first 

 seen in the vicinity of Tarn worth, at about sunrise on the morning 

 of the 12th instant. In the various weather notices of different 

 journals published north or west of that town, no mention is 

 made of the phenomenon, such as would be expected had its 

 appearance been observed in the districts they represent. The 

 Tamworth News refers to it as obscuring the horizon from north- 

 east to south-west, and as being the result of the refraction of the 

 solar rays on passing through the depressed exhalations from the 

 moistened earth. In this neighbourhood the conditions under 

 which the fog appeared were quite different, its direction being 

 rather from north-west to south-east, and its existence altogether 

 independent of "moistened earth," the preceding night having 

 been too mild in temperature to produce a very copious fall of dew. 

 W^ith these exceptions the accounts coincide in the general repre- 

 sentation of the event already furnished. 



"Its appearance and disappearance were alike sudden, consider- 

 ing the immense extent of country it appears to have covered, and 

 its rate of progress was exceedingly rapid. At half -past five a.m. 



