Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-07-20
HOT WEATHER TALK.
Spots Where Over High Tempera-
lures Would Seem Cold Waves.
THERMOMETERS WAY UP TO 1870.
At Alden it Rains Once in Four Years and
Every Drop is HOarded.
BLASTS THAT wITHER AUSTRALIA
WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPATcH.1

sitting summer heat and refuses to be COM
forted by the predictions of the Signal Service
they may find relief in the thought that men
have to live in places which, after all, are
much hotter even than Chicago in the latter
days of June. By comparison they may
imagine themselves almost cool, and, if
their Imagination is sufficiently vivid, it re-
suits in measure OF comfort Independent
of the readings Of the thermometer.
Hottest Of all torrid spots upon the sum-
mer earth is Alden, at the mouth of the Red
Sea, where the English Government main
tains coal pile for its navy and force of
soldiers to watch the pile, lest it be set afire
by jealous powers. They lead the life of
lonely salamanders upon their isolated
rock, with view Of almost boiling sea in
one direction, with wide stretches of baked
sand in the other, and behind them rugged
ranges of mountain, dry and red, where no
green thing is ever seen to grow. No matter
whence the wind may blow, it. brings no
moisture to the Straits of Bah el Mandeb-
even dew is a rare phenomenon, for the
clouds which appear in the sky at sunset
serve as blankets to make the night stagnant
with heat more uncomfortable than the blaz-
ing sun by day.
RAIN ONCE IN FOUR YEARS.
About once in four years the thermometer
registers as low as 900 in the coolest part of
the day Just before sunrise; the lowest point
of ordinary nights is fully 80 warmer. But
with the sun returns the heat; hour by hour
the mercury in the thermometer emulates
the course Of the sun in the sky; 1t climbs
higher and higher and brings more discom-
tort to suffering humanity. Shortly after
midday it reaches its highest notch, which
it maintains until nearly sunset, and it is
never lower than 115o, and frequently
travels many degree higher yet, and has
been known to register 1850 in the shade.
1t rains on this blistered military post
about once in three years and that is the sole
water supply, for there are no springs, and
we'll borings tap nothing but seams OF eter-
nal drought. AS much else in Arabia King
Solomon is credited with the responsibility
for the Alden reservoirs, and, to this day,
they are called King Solomon's we'll, Here
is collected the water of the triennial shower
and, BY economical use, it may be made to
last until the rain comes again.
DIVING IN THE SEA FOR WATER.
Bad as is the case at the southwest corner
of Arabia, it is even worse at the southeast
angle, where lie the Bahrein Islands, Just
off the coast of Oman. 1t is almost as hot
here as at Alden, and there is the additional
discomfort that it never rains at all. Dates
grow upon the islands and provide food for
the population; for their drinking water
they are forced to seek it in the sea, which
is the last place where one would expect to
| find fresh water. Strange as it may seem,
not drop of water is drunk by the Bahrein
| Islanders which has not been brought from
the bottom OF the sea. Springs exist at
| deyth OF several !athoms, and the only way
of getting drink IS to dive for it. Water
| bearers go down with empty skins and
| bring them up full to peddIe the precious
| contents.
| 1t is not within the tropics that one finds
the maximum heat, nor is the heat OF the
torrid zone so iusupportable as summer
extremes in more temperate zonea. II the
recent hot spell in Chicago had occurred in
| the Java seas it would probably have de-
populated the archipelago with cholera yet
the average heat of the Maylayan Islands is
more than 800. The cause is not far to
seek; the people are accustomed to climate
of moderate range and do not have to
exhaust their vitality in supporting great
cold for a large portion of the year. Their
systems grow used to certain amount of
heat and their mode of living is eonformed
to that standard.
NO WATER IN AUSTRALIA.
Australia is probably the hottest of the
temperate lands inhabited by white races,
and it is at the same time almost the driest
excluding such absolute deserts as a large
portion of the Pacific coast OF South Amer
lean. From the time when its summer be-
gins, in September, until the coming of win
ter in July, the earth gives up all its moist
ure, almost the largest bodies of water dry
up, the air is dry and day by day the sun
sends down ever fercer beams. Adelaide,
which is upon the south shore of the CONT
nent, finds 1850 no unusual temperature for
Christmas, and an additional 100 scarcely
calls for comment in the journals Not con-
tent with the appalling state of the ther-
moneter in the shade they expose it to the
sun and find to their dismay temperature
OF anywhere from 1900 to 1900.
Sheep and cattle die, yet men manage to
live, and, despite the torrid heat, never have
ice. The nearest approach to cooling
drink is water from canvas bags, which is
cooled by constant evaporation. Taere is
an interesting comparison-Amer1ca uses
ice water and suffers sunstroke: Australia,
with much greater heat, knows neither SUM-
stroke nor ice water.
DEPENDS ON HOW YOU TAKEIT.
There Is fully 80 degrees difference be-
tween the mean temperature Of most OF the
United States and India, this country aver
aging about 30 degrees and most OF Hin
dostan being above 80 degrees. Thus the
Anglo-Indian is q we'll recognized type of
humanity with his testy temper and i'm
paired liver, for which the excessive tenn
perature is held responsible. Yet it is posi-
BILE that the heat ter all is not so much to
blame; no one looks upon a Dutch-Indian
as well-recognized type of manhood; he
has no liver and no temper to afford torment
to his family and torture to his friends, but
great merriment upon the stage, yet the
average temperature of the Dutch East
Indies is considerably above that of Hin
dustan.
The difference is all in the way in which
one takes the heat. The English griffin
makes no concessions to Indian life. The
Dutchman renounces Holland and all its
works from the instant he steps ashore at
Batauia The time-honored divisions of the
day are overturned to suit the new order Of
climate. Broad daylight is the time for
sleep. The twilight of morning and even
ing are the time for work when there is cool
ness abroad WILLIAM CHURCHILL,