422 
Analyses of Books. 
IJune, 
Notes on the Meteorology of the South Australian Alps. By 
James Stirling, F.L.S. 
This memoir, which is a reprint from the “ Transactions of the 
Royal Society of Victoria,” has been courteously forwarded to 
us by the author. It contains a series of observations made 
at Omeo, and is a very useful contribution to the meteorology 
not merely of Australia, but generally of the Southern Hemi- 
sphere, — a subject in great need of more extended study. 
Mr. Stirling began his observations in 1879 at Omeo. The 
exact altitude of this place does not seem to be given, though 
we should conclude from various data that it is more than 
2000 feet above the sea-level. He has also collected returns 
from settlers living in the mountainous region around, and has 
erected instruments at Mount St. Bernard, at the elevation of 
5036 feet. Mr. Boustead is in charge of this latter station. We 
learn that snow falls at heights exceeding 2000 feet. Wheat 
can be successively cultivated at elevations between 2500 and 
3000 feet ; and cabbages, green peas, and other esculent vege- 
tables, up to 5000 feet. The author considers that these higher 
regions of Australia offer a splendid field for investigating many 
interesting meteorological changes. He suggests the establish- 
ment of a chain of high-level observatories from the Western 
Australian ranges across South Australia, and the summits of 
the Australian Alps to the Blue Mountains in New South 
Wales. 
The average rainfall at Omeo is 24-18 inches yearly. The 
average number of wet days in the year is g6, the maximum 
being 114, the minimum 84. The greatest mean rainfall for 
any month is in October, 3-47 inches. The moisture-laden 
winds are the south-westerly and north-westerly. The average 
annual snowfall at Omeo is 2 feet 3 inches, and at Mount 
St. Bernard (5000 feet) 14 feet. Near the summit of Mount 
Kosciusko (7200 feet) it is probably 50 feet. Hail is frequent 
during summer and autumn in the higher regions, but less com- 
mon at the sub-alpine altitudes, though the size of the hailstones 
is often larger, between 2000 and 4000 feet, than at greater 
heights. 
The yearly average of cloudiness, judging from observations 
made at 9 a.m. daily, is — clear days, 123-4; cloudy, 184-8 ; and 
overcast, 55-8. The clear days are, however, in the majority 
during the summer. It is, we think, by the way, a mistake for 
meteorologists to divide the year into four equal seasons. The 
respective length of the seasons is a phenomenon depending 
upon latitude, altitude, proximity to the ocean, &c. Now, as in 
Omeo there are on the average seventeen frosty days yearly, 
which may occur from May to September inclusive, we should 
be inclined to say that Omeo has five months winter. July, 
