62 
SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
ated on that side. It is not considered conducive 
to health; while the South-Easter, from blowing- 
all pestilential yapours and effluvia out to sea, 
and purifying the streets and avenues by their 
overpowering currents of air, has obtained the 
local epithet of " the Doctor" 
The " hot/' or 66 desert " wind, of Southern 
Africa, is another atmospheric visitant, occa- 
sionally to be found. This is simply the ex- 
pended force of the Sirocco of the Zahara de- 
sert; which, having spent its main strength 
there, comes to die at the Cape. 
It has somewhat of the nature of the "Si- 
moom" inasmuch as it comes silently along, 
and is loaded with a dry scorching heat, which 
is a death blow to all vegetation, and is not 
agreeable, for the time, to any branch, of na- 
ture's creatures. It is viewed, in the South of 
Africa, as a scourge — yet it is a blessing. Where 
frost seldom comes to absorb the caloric from 
the face of nature, nor yet to check over abun- 
dant and decaying vegetation, this answers the 
purpose ; and although, during the time of its 
visit, its presence is not appreciated, yet its 
utility is soon felt and acknowledged after it 
is gone. 
It differs from the Simoom, however, in that 
it is colourless, and although charged with heat 
and aridity almost amounting to suffocation, 
