The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1874-08-06
Hot Winds Of Australia.

A Correspondent Of the Alta Cali
forn,d gives a graphic account of the
hot winds Of Australia. 1t makes one
gasp for breath to read it. He says !:
THE colonists of Victoria and New
South Wales boast of the great beauty
Of their climate. A description of the
hot winds, which are so boisterously
prevalent there during short periods of
the summer months, and which are very
extraordinary in their character and
effects, will help to show how far the
boast is justified. A misty smoke dark
ems the atmosphere, which feels SO op-
pressively hot as to render breathing
at once laborious and painful. One sun
shines with lurid glare far hotter
than when in open brilliancy, and
presenting to the eye the appear
ance of full moon behind heecy
cloud. Dogs crawl along with their
parched tongues dangling almost to the
ground, and horses move on with droop-
ing heads and convulsive gasps. All
kinds of vegetation first hang their ten
drills, then shrivel up, and finally yield
to premature decay. And as the burn
ing sirrocs increases apace, and thick
clouds of dust dessicate the air, animal
and vegetable life would seem to be
threatened with total destruction. Cat
tie of every description often succumb
to incalescent exhaustion and die by the
road side; fields of grain. which in the
morning were fresh and green, become,
before evening, yellow as with the ripe
ness of maturity, but in reality, stunt
ed and singed by the fiery influences
prevailing; trees yielding their sap to
the slakeless temperature, rapidly in
cinerate and cast off their but recently
luscious fruit, and flowers pass through
all the gradations of growth and devel-
opment-form into bud, open into
bloom. and drop their leaves in the
cauldron around. in less than day.
All nature, in fact, would appear for
the time to be trying experiments in
TECHNOLOGY. totally Indifferent about
health and life. The ingeous elements,
so wildly careering, suggest nothing
but enelrcling volcanoes pouring forth
and scattering around their burning
lava, reduced to scintillant powder.
''lt is scourge of the most destruc-
tive character. Outdoor business life
is virtually suspended, and the few peo-
pie moving about are every moment
employed in wiping off the profuse
dusty perspiration that streams down
their faces. Cafes and hotels swarm
like bee-hives with languid, thirsty men,
and the numerous iced beverages drank
would astonish the most credulous. So
hour after hour passes, the heat in
creases in intensity, and thirst bccom-
ing more universal and Unsuitable.
Indoor life is alone endurable, and
rooms so carefully deprived of air and
light as to give them in any other
weather a high feaver temperature, are
now comparatively cold. The external
aspect of houses is sombre and funeral,
every shutter and door being closed.
and the occupants lounge, gasp. and
sigh most piteously. Reading is out of
the question. music is forsaken, and ac-
tive amusement blank. Gentlemen
| smoke. swallow ices, and yawn. Bathing
is the only thing enjoyable, and amphib-
iousness becomes almost human attri-
butte. While these terrible hot winds
prevail. entire crops are sometimes de-
stroyed. homesteads burnt, and many
lives lost. Fortunately they do not last
more than two or three days at time,
otherwise life and property would be so
insecure as to render living an invest
ment in the Colonies undesirable in the
extreme"
| FRED. GooDsELL, banker of North.
| field has disnoSed of his nronertv thorc