PERIODICITY OF GOOD AND BAD SEASONS. 81 
HURRICANES COME IN DROUGHTS. 
I should like it to be clearly understood that I do not mean 
ordinary hurricanes which are as much parts of ordinary weather 
conditions in some parts of the world, as our southerly winds are 
here. What I mean are extraordinary hurricanes, those that came 
at long intervals to terrify mankind by their power for destruction. 
These are connected with droughts, and therefore should be dis- 
cussed here. I had years since observed that the connection 
between the two was obvious enough sometimes, and during the 
past year I was reminded of it very often by the frequent reports 
of heavy gales met with by ships coming to this port, indicating 
great atmospheric energy. Then on March 24, 1895 occurred | 
the worst gale of the Nineteenth Century in England, which did 
more damage there than any other gale since 1703. Then on 
January 3, 1896, came the hurricane over the Tongan group of 
islands, and not one of the vessels in the harbour rode out the 
storm; every one of them was wrecked before morning, and the 
wind was of such exceptional violence that after it was over, the 
islands looked as if they had been bombarded. 
And as I write, May 28, we have the report of a terrible 
cyclone in America, by which three of the States, Missouri, Illinois 
and Indiana were damaged, the city of St. Louis was wrecked, 
and 1,500 people killed by falling buildings, and damage to 
property caused to the extent, as estimated, of twenty millions of | 
dollars ; this is another fragment of the present D drought. 
Then I turned to storms on this coast, some of which were of 
terrible violence. 
DANDENONG GALE IN DROUGHT D. 
And as I looked, memory ran over the storms of the past and 
picked out the most terrible gale of which we have any record in 
Australia, viz., the Dandenong storm, on 10th of September, 1876, 
just nineteen years before 1895, a storm in which a very fine 
steamer the “ Dandenong,” going to Melbourne foundered, and all 
hands were lost. In parts of this storm gusts of wind reached 
one hundred and forty and one hundred fifty-three miles per hour. 
F—June 3, 1896, 
