542 HENRY A. HUNT. 
istics are so obtrusive that they cannot be overlooked, and they 
are welcomed as the most pleasant relief after the high temper : 
tures and oppressive northerly winds which precede them. They 
come in the late spring, all summer, and part of autumn, butas 
a rule, in order to get a strong southerly an antecedent excessively 
hot day or days must beexperienced. The duration of a southerly 
burster may be anything from two hours to ten days, but it is not 
to be understood that the term burster is applied to the whole 
period or duration of the southerly wind. What is called a 
burster is the squall or sudden and violent change of wind direc- 
tion, and the violent rush or “ burst” which marks the advent of 
this wind. We need not go into all the characteristics ; these will 
be found in the Abercromby Prize Essay on this subject.’ It is 
there explained that the south wind comes in front of an approach: 
ing anticyclone, and that it is felt from West to Eastern Australis 
but it is only on the eastern coast, where, aided by the smaller 
friction of the ocean and the shelter which the mountains afford 
from other winds, that the southerly becomes more vigorous and 
rushes northwards in a squall, which happens so suddenly and 
with such force, that at times ships drag their anchors in Sydney 
harbour. 
It is not definitely made out yet that these storms are 
“line storms ” in the sense that the change of wind comes a8 the 
dip in the isobars passes over each place in succession, but there 
are many facts which suggest that such is the fact in some instanc® 
Our present purpose is to describe a “‘burster” as a type 
Australian weather. The essential feature of it is a sha? 
+ 
A; in Chart 31 such a depression is shewn existing over Viclo™ — 
and Tasmania, with its axis lying from north-north-west to south 
south-east. 
year exists to the west, and hot northerly winds occupy norther® 
Australia; these are the elements for the good burster that 
As a general rule,” the position and character of #8 
followed. 
1 4 * 
Journal Royal Society, N.S. Wales, Vol. xxvimI. 
Moving Anticyclones—Quarterly Journal Roy. Met. Soc., Vol. x 
An anticyclone of good energy for this time of the — 
