Colonial Sketches; Or, Five Years in South Australia, with Hints to Capitalists and Emigrants (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. A FINE DAT AT THE ANTIPODES. It is actually a luxury to breathe the air at this season of the year.?Writer on South Australia. On Saturday, the 21st January, 1860, the colony experienced a day of heat, dust, and hot winds perhaps unequalled in intensity in the memory of the oldest inhabitant. On this day the thermometer reached the highest point known in South Australia, and, I believe, the highest range of natural heat ever observed by any traveller in the known world. During the whole day the fiery blast swept on and continued until the following day, when the thermometer fell and rain ensued, and the atmosphere cooled down a little, while the earth literally steamed for hours with evaporation. The highest authenticated range in Adelaide was 117 in the shade at Mr. Muirhead's shop in King William Street, and 158 in the sun; whilst at Gawler Town (27 miles North of Adelaide) the glass reached 123 in the shade, and 168 in the sun, about the region where spirits are supposed to boil by scientific authorities. At the Observer newspaper office, imagined to be from obvious reasons one of the coolest localities in the colony, in a well- shaded locality according to their own account, the range was 112 at 2 o'clock. My thermometer at Norwood, about two miles from Adelaide, stood at 116 in the shade, at 3 o'clock on Saturday, and at 107 in the shade, at 10 A.m. on Sunday morning. Imagine the feelings of any individualunder the infliction of this interesting process of cookery, called " slow baking." Those who have heen prone to groan at the heat of even an exceptional English or Continental summer, and declare life a burthen, and recline languidly on sofas with the comforts and amenities of social and civilized life, transport yourselves in imagination to South Aust...