Wentworth's New South IF ales. 
646 
the end of March to the beginning of 
September, are from S. to W. 
The three winter months are June, 
Juty, and August. During this inter¬ 
val the mornings and evenings are very 
chilly, and the nights excessively cold. 
Hoar frosts are frequent, and become 
more severe the further you advance 
into the interior. Ice half an inch 
thick is found at the distance of twenty 
miles from the coast. Very little rain 
falls at this season, but the dews are 
very heavy when it does not freeze, 
and tend considerably to preserve the 
young crops from the effects of drought. 
Fogs too are frequent and dense in low 
damp situations, and on the banks of 
the rivers. The mean temperature at 
day-light is from 40° to 45°, and at 
noon from 55° to 60°. 
The spring months are September, 
October, and November. In the be¬ 
ginning of September the fogs still con¬ 
tinue, the nights are cold, but the days 
clear and pleasant. Towards the close 
of this month the cold begins very 
sensibly to moderate. Light showers 
occasionally prevail, accompanied with 
thunder and lightning. The thermo¬ 
meter at the beginning of the month is 
seldom above 60° at noon, but towards 
the end frequently rises to 70°. 
Such is the temperature throughout 
the year at Port Jackson. In the in¬ 
land districts to the eastward of the 
mountains, the thermometer is upon 
an average 5° lower in the morning, 
and (he same number of degrees higher 
at noon throughout the winter season, 
but during the summer months it is 
5°higher at all hours of the day. On 
(he mountains themselves, and in the 
country to the westward of them, the 
climate, in consequence of their su¬ 
perior elevatiou, is much more tem¬ 
perate. Heavy falls of snow take place 
during the winter, and remain some¬ 
times for many days on the summits of 
the loftiest hills ; but in the valleys the 
snow immediately dissolves. The frosts 
too are much more severe, and the win¬ 
ters are of longer duration. ' All the 
seasons indeed are more distinctly 
marked to the westward of (he moun¬ 
tains, and bear a much stronger re¬ 
semblance to the corresponding ones in 
this country. 
DISEASES. 
Abdominal and pulmonic complaints 
are the two prevalent diseases. The ab¬ 
dominal complaints are confined prin¬ 
cipally to dysentery. This disorder is 
most common among the poorer classes 
and new-comers. In these it is gene¬ 
rally intimately connected with squrvy, 
and in both cases it is for the most part 
greatly aggravated by the excessive use 
of spirituous liquors, to which the mass 
of the colonists are unfortunately ad¬ 
dicted. 
There are no infantile diseases what¬ 
ever. The measles, hooping cough, 
and small pox, are entirely unknown. 
Some few years, indeed, before the 
foundation of the colony, the small 
pox committed the most dreadful ra¬ 
vages among the aborigines. This ex¬ 
terminating scourge is said to have 
been introduced by Captain Cook, and 
many of the contemporaries of those 
who fell victims to it are still living ; 
and the deep furrows which remain in 
some of the countenances shew how 
narrowly they escaped the same prema¬ 
ture destiny. 
SOIL. 
The colony of New South Wales pos¬ 
sesses every variety of soil, from the 
sandy heath and the cold hungry clay, 
to the fertile loam and the deep vegeta¬ 
ble mould. For the distance of five or 
six miles from the coast the land is in 
general extremely barren, being a poor 
hungry sand, thickly studded with 
rocks. A few miserable stunted gums, 
and a dwarf underwood, are the richest 
productions of the best parts of it ; 
whilst the rest never gives birth to a 
tree at all, and is only covered with 
low flowering shrubs, whose infinite 
diversity, however, and extraordinaiy 
beauty render this wild heath the most 
interesting part of the country for the 
botanist, and make even the less scien¬ 
tific beholder forget the nakedness and 
sterility of the scene. 
Beyond this barren waste, which 
thus forms a girdle to the coast, the 
country suddenly begins to improve. 
The soil changes to a thin layer of 
vegetable mould, resting on a stratum 
of yellow clay, which is again sup¬ 
ported by a deep bed of schistus. The 
trees of the forest are here of the most 
stately dimensions. Full sized gums 
and iron barks, along side of which the 
loftiest trees in this country would ap¬ 
pear as pigmies, with the beefwood 
tree, or, as it is generally termed, the 
forest oak, which is of much humbler 
growth, are the usual timber. The 
forest is extremely thick, but there is 
little or no underwood. A poor' sour 
grass, which is too effectually shaded 
from the rays of the sun to be possessed 
of any nutritive and fattening proper- 
* ° lies. 
