9 
valuable knowledge would have been the conse- 
quence! — what a climatic map of the world !— 
anticipating, and superseding to a great extent, 
the experimental labours of the lovers of accli- 
matisation. We should then know that which 
now we are ignorant of, viz., which distinct and 
distant portions of the globe assimilate to each 
other in temperature, rainfall, prevailing 
winds, electricity, atmospheric pressure, dry- 
ness or dampness of the climate, the length of 
the various seasons, and the causes and effects 
of exceptional seasons, as observed in a cycle of 
years, &c., &c. We should be able to 
judge of the fitness, or otherwise, of each place 
for the support of life, either in 
the human race in health and disease, or in the 
ease of animals, birds, fish, or plants. We may 
infer with tolerable safety, for instance, that the 
salmon will thrive if introduced into the waters 
of any country similar to Scotland ; or the 
sugar-cane will flourish in any place with a 
climate like that of Demerara. The converse 
of theseconelusionsmustalsoobtain — that where 
any natural production fails or is sickly, the 
same result would follow in its being introduced 
into a similar climate elsewhere, and the trouble, 
danger, and expense of the experiment would 
be obviated and rendered unnecessary. 
The uses of meteorological observations in 
foretelling the advent of sea-storms and their 
movements from one part of the coast to another, 
form an additional and strong argument in 
favour of extending our fields of research and 
record under this head. The electric telegraph 
comes to our assistance here and renders 
available for prompt application, those 
facts which must otherwise have been of mere 
ordinary ' utility in the usual quiet way of 
record. 
The study of planetary influence on the 
weather becomes also necessary in order to 
embrace the whole subject successfully, inas- 
much as many phases of the weather would 
be quite unaccountable 'if the causes were 
looked for on the earth alone. 
The importance of making and keeping up 
these observations i3 fully recognised by the 
Home Government. The Board of Trade has 
obtained from Parliament an annual grant for 
carrying out this object ; but we need not look 
so far from Australia in order to find due at- 
tention paid to these matters, at least so far as 
the. record of temperature or .rainfall is con- 
cerned. Since the year 1842, at Melbourne, 
Adelaide, Hobart Town, and Port Macquarie 
these observations have been made and kept, 
and at Sydney for a much longer period. In 
New Zealand also, for many years past, regular 
records of the weather have been carried out at 
Auckland, Wellington, New Plymouth, and 
elsewhere. 
In New South Wales there are more than a 
dozen stations for weather record ; one is estab- 
lished at Armidale, on the table land of New 
England ; another at Cooma, on the high 
country of Maneroo ; also at Deniliquin and 
Albury, in the Murray district ; at Goulburn 
and Bathurst, each in mountain districts ; 
Casino, on the Richmond River ; Maitland, 
Parramatta and Braidwood, on the Clyde River 
ranges, &c., &c. The result of the observations 
made at these stations is interesting in a high 
degree, and as there are both hotter and colder 
places in New South Wales than any of those 
named, we find that that colony possesses 
within its borders climates varying from that 
of Scotland to that of Africa, and this, too, with- 
out any Himalayan elevations. 
The subjoined list shows at a glance the 
annual mean temperature of many places iu 
Australia, interspersed with those of similar 
climates in Europe, America, Asia, &c. There 
is also a comparison, month by month, of the 
climates of London, 51 degrees north, 
70 feet above sea level ; Armidale, 30 
degrees south, 3258 feet above sea 
level ; Cooma, 36 deg. south, 2637 feet above 
sea level ; and Hobart Town, 43 deg. south ; 
and showing how much more rapidly spring 
comes on in Australia as compared with Eng- 
land, while the annual mean temperature of the 
four places is after all so similar. 
Annual 
Latitude. 
Mean Temp. 
1155 
Pondicherry, E.I. ... 
... 8375 
1P5 
Port Essington, Austral 
ia... 82-8 
10-27 
Cumana, S. America 
... 81-86 
1*20 
Singapore ... .... 
... 790 
6‘10 
Batavia 
... 78-3 
23-10 
Havanah 
... 78-08 
1911 
Vera, Cruz ... 
... 77-72 
22*23 
Calcutta 
... 77-6 
14-36 
Manila 
... 77-15 
230 
Rockhampton 
... 74-5 
Rio Janeiro... 
... 740 
30-2 
Cairo 
... 72*32 
Algiers 
... 70-0 
27.1 
Brisbane 
... 67-9 
Port Natal, S. Africa 
... 67 9 
Madeira 
... 67-9 
Casino, Richmond River, N. 
S. Wales 
... 66-5 
31-55 
Western Australia ... 
... 65-3 
Cape Town 
65 "0 
34-55 
Adelaide 
... 64-9 
New Orleans 
... 64-76 
Cadiz 
... 63-5 
31-25 
Port Macquarie 
... 63 0 
32-47 
Maitland ... 
... 63-0 
437 
Toulon 
... 6206 
33-51 
Sydney 
... 62-0 
Lisbon 
. . . 62-0 
Naples 
... 61-0 
32-45 
Nagasaki, Japan ... 
... 60-80 
Rome 
. . 60-44 
35-2 
King George’s Sound 
... 60-1 
Nice... 
... 60-0 
43-36 
Montpelier ... 
... 59-36 
4317 
Marseilles 
... 59-0 
