I837-] Dr. Milligan on the Climate of Van Dieman's Land. 417 



boats of four or five tons as high up as Perth, which is about 12 miles 

 from the Sea Coast. Fresh water lagoons are numerous ^ there are also 

 others containing salt-water. The water of the wells, though at first 

 indifferent, from not having been procured from a sufficient depth, is 

 excellent. It sparkles in the glass, cooks food, and washes linen well 

 and speedily, and may be drank freely without relaxing the stomach. 

 The strongest winds are from the north-west and south-west. The 

 north wind is the hottest, and is very sultry during summer, de- 

 stroying vegetation if long continued. During the summer, there is 

 a regular land and sea breeze, the former prevailing in the morn- 

 ing from the east, and the latter setting in about noon from south- 

 west. The mornings and evenings are pleasant, and the nights 

 cool. The sky is clear, and of a beautiful azure without cloud or rain : 

 moderate dews descend at night. As the autumn approaches, the wea- 

 ther becomes less serene. The sky is occasionally overcast, with thun- 

 der-storms, which prove acceptable, however, and beneficial, mitigating 

 the excessive heat, and rendering the fields fit for the labours of the 

 husbandman. In winter, the winds are occasionally boisterous, endan- 

 gering the shipping if exposed ; it rains for the most part two or three 

 days together, and then clears up for a somewhat longer period. In 

 wet weather, fogs are not uncommon in the mornings and evenings in 

 the low grounds, or along the banks of the rivers. Hail of a large size 

 occasionally falls ; snow is unknown, and ice is but rarely met with. 

 Fires are not unwelcome in the mornings and evenings ; but on the 

 whole are tb be looked on more as a luxury than a necessary. Such is 

 the nature of the climate and locality to which Sir James Stirling pro- 

 ceeded in June 1829, accompanied by a detachment of His Majesty's 

 63d Regiment, to establish a new colony. Settlers soon commenced to 

 arrive, and poured in rapidly, till the end of 1830, at which time, the 

 population amounted to about two thousand. The vessels which brought 

 them out, resembled in some measure Noah's ark, being crowded to 

 excess with animals, birds, and plants, as well as men, women, and chil- 

 dren, with provisions and household goods. If we can fancy the popu- 

 lation of one of the parishes in England, mixed with a sprinkling of half 

 pay officers, some gentlemen from the East and West Indies, and a few 

 Cocknies, put down on the shores of a wilderness, we shall have some 

 idea of* the founders of this interesting colony. Their first object on 

 landing was to get under shelter. Their domiciles were of course at 

 first of a wretched description. Some had single tents ; others huts of 

 green-wood, pervious to every shower; while many had no other cover- 

 ing night or day than the wide canopy of heaven. Afterwards, when 

 the settlers got on their own grants of land, their houses improved, by 

 successive gradations, from the wooden house they had imported, or 

 had made in the colony, to that of wattle and dub, and finally to the 



