I 
SOUTHERN AFRICA. 13 
about 30 degrees, and they continue in squalls till mid- 
night. From November to April a shower of rain scarcely 
ever falls. 
The barometer stands higher in the clear cold days of winter 
than in the settled serene weather of summer. The height 
of the column of mercury varies, in the former season, from 
29.46 to 30.35 inches,, one point indicating a storm with 
rain, thunder, and lightning ; and the other, settled fair 
weather. The changeable point is about 29-95 or 30 inches. 
The greatest range being only 89 hundred parts of an inch, 
the sliditest alteration in the state of the barometer is sure 
to indicate a change of w^eather. The range of the mercury^ 
in the summer season, is still less, being scarcely ever above 
30.10, or below 29-74 inches. The south-east gales of wind 
seldom occasion a change of more than 15 hundred parts of 
an inch. Happy for the inhabitants of Cape Town that by 
these winds a constant circulation of the air is kept up during 
the summer months, without which, notwithstanding the 
languor they occasion, the reflected heat from the naked 
front of the Table mountain would make th& town insupport«- 
able.- 
Most of the fatal diseases that prevail among the natives 
would appear to proceed rather from their habits of life than 
fi-om any real unhealthiness in the climate. Nothing could 
afford a stronger proof of this conclusion than the circum-' 
stance of there not having been one sick man in the general, 
military hospital for several months, and not more than a hun- 
dred in the regimental hospitals out of five thousand troops ; 
6 
