CLIMATIC DISTURBANCES. 307 Tho' we have bad heavy rains at the change of the moon, this 1788 cannot be called a rainy season. The climate is a very fine one, and 9 July, the country will, I make no doubt, when the woods are cleared away, be as healthy as any in the world, but is, I believe, subject Fine to violent storms of thunder and lightning. Soon after we landed ^^*™**®- several trees were fired by the lightning, and several sheep and bogs killed in the camp. The climatic changes which took place during the early years of the colony are frequently referred to by Phillip and his contemporaries. The thunderstorms were sudden Thunderand and violent; rain fell in torrents; trees were frequently ^ °^" eplit by lightning, and animals standing under them killed; in winter it was so cold that ice was common atParramatta, and large hailstones fell when it rained ; while the heat in summer, especially when the hot winds blew, was intoler- ably severe. The cause of the extreme heat was a subject of much discussion, some attributing it to the practice, common among the natives, of setting the bush on fire. Tench made a better guess when he accounted for it " by the wind blowing over immense desarts, which, I doubt not, exist in a north-west direction from Port Jackson."* The sudden variations of the weather were at first attri- buted to the changes of the moon; but according to Tench, me moon lunar empire afterwards lost its credit,^' and the violent weatho-. outbursts of the elements were regarded as peculiar to the country. Experience proved thein to be nothing more than the usual results of dense vegetation in semi-tropical coun- tries, unoccupied by civilised men. The difference in temperature felt at Sydney and Eose Hill, only twelve miles apart, was a subject of common Tempera- remark : the extremes of heat and cold being felt at one sySTney and place in much greater intensity than at the other. But
- Tench relates that, during a hot wind which lasted for three days, " an
immense flight of bats, driven before the wind, covered all the trees round the settlement, whence every moment they dropped dead, or in a dying state, unable longer to endure the burning state of the atmosphere. Nor did the perroquettes, though tropical birds, bear it better ; the ground was strewed with them in the same condition as the bats. That was at Kose Hill. — Complete Account, p. 168. Digitized by Google
