Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1853-03-26

AUsTRALIA.-It is no wonder THAI there are
such conflicting accounts of region where every
thing in nature is so widely different from what we
are accustomed 10 elsewhere, where most of the
quadrupeds into this breathing world not halt
made up, and grow the rest in outside pouch;
where the swans are black, and the eagles white;
where the jay laughs like jackass, the maybe
breathes like an Eolian harp, and other birds fuer
about cracking whips, grinding knives, and ringing
chimes of bells, where the cuckooS note startes the
dull ear Of night, and the owls bodlng screech
mocks the light of day; where the mole and the
piayVpus lay eggs, and when they are Matched,
suckle their young; where maggots hive inches long
are eaten like maccaroni; where the bees are with
out sting, many of the most beautiful flowers with
out SMELL and most ofthe trees without shade shed
ding their bark instead of leaves where the north
winds are hot the south winds cold, and the east
winds healthy; where the mountain tops are warm,
the valleys cool, and the rivers dwindle as thew
run, and are lost before they reach the sea.
l. is no wonder, we say that good deal of mis-
apprehension still exists respecting region like
this. We must get accustomed 10 the oddities it
presents; the European eye must cease to wonder
II follows the travelling northward, and the Eu-
ropean ear to be startled by hearing the word July
associated with mid winter, and the word January
with mId-summer before true estimate be
formed even Of ordinary facts. Spring begins early
IN September, and genial warmth goes increas-
lag as the rain dimnishes, till about the middle OF
November when summer commences. The warmth
10 by this time heat, which wakes and wakes, ill
by the end ofhe month the rivers have disappeared,
vegetation ceased, and the whole country is an arid
desert. AT The close of February, the temperature
begins TO sink; by the middle of March, autumn has
begun; and in early April, as at home-the April of
the poets-showers and sunshine alternate, the
ground is covered with Competing of yerduIe, and
the air is clear, bracing and buoyant
In June winter comes, if that can be called winter
which is distinguished only by torrents of rain, and
''the river roaring like the sea- During this time
till the middle end Of August, there are delight
fnl days and even weeks between the rains, more
beautiful and exhilarating than the finest spring
weather in England. The average Of good and bad
throughout the year is twenty-five extremely hot
days, sixty wet cold days, and the rest 'findis.
crlbaby pleasant" with the air In light and balmy,
and the deep blue sky unsianed by a cloud In
winter, the thermometer rarely ranges lower than
46 degrees Fahrenheit, and ice is rarely or never
seen; but in summer, in the latitude Of Sydney and
Melbourne, the mercury frequently indicates 80 or
100 degrees, or even more. The variations in the
temperature are sudden aad extraordinary At noon
it is frequently higher by 20 degrees than in the
morning or evening; and the average heat of one
day is greater by 10 degrees than that of the next
The north wind is always dry, and often violent;
IN winter moderately warm, in summer intensely hot
raising the thermometer in the shade sometimes 10
I2O degrees, drying up grass aud fruit and filling
the air with dense a cloud Of sand and dust, that
the sun is obscure, aud Millions idea of darkness
Visibly realized. Occasionally this wind travels so
slowly, that It's movement is scarcely perceptble;
and then the EARTH exposed TO the unobscured RAYS
OF the sur, and the searching but almost notonless
wind, becomes so hot that thermometer, over
another just sunk below the surface stood at Isl de.
grees During these srOccos, sheet lightning sweeps
through the atmosphere at night.