The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1896-08-13
TERRIBLE HEAT.
tales OF Awful Suffering From the suns
Rays in Australia.

/ The people in America talk about
/ the hot summer that has prevailed in
all portions of the country, but it is
frigid compared to the condition in
Australia, as given by the Sydney
/ Herald:
| IN many of the inland townships the
inhabitants have become panic-strick
en- Eye witnesses describe the alarm
as taking a snpersttious form. This
fact is curious, as confirming Buckle
in his theory that ignorance and super
! stition more largely prevail where the
aspect o! nature is the more startling.
and imposing. The government was
petitioned to run special trains for the
express purpose Of Transporting the in
habitants of the heat stricken district
to cooler parts of the colony.
These prayers were granted SO far as
to run weekly cheap train from Sgd
ney to Bourke, distance of over 500
miles. Birds dropped dead from the
trees Those that were alive could be
captured easily by the hand, the wild
est and shyest not excepted Rabbits
everywhere lay dead.
On some stations the remarkable
sight was witnessed of the Australian
magpies widest of birds-taking
shelter among the domestic fowls Of
the yard. in their endeavors to escape
from the fierce heat. Their behavior
was that of dazed and stupefed Great
ures They were perfectly Indifferent
to the presence Of human beings. Per-
haps the most striking effect of the un-
exampled heat was furnished from
place named Nyngan, whence came the
brief and pointed messages: Mos
quitoes are being killed by the heat "
A private coach, occupied by one
passenger, was proceeding from Jundah
10 Wlndorah, @. Overcome by heat,
the driver turned the coach aside and
PR ceeded TO camp underneath, while
the passenger took a rest under a
neighboring tree. When he had rested
sufficiently he turned to rouse the
driver but found him dead Lifting
the corpse into the coach, he started
for Windorah, but overcome in his
turn. fell out of the coach, unconscious,
and lay on the road until the rain fell
and revived him.
Again he made for Windorah with
his grewSome load, and finally arrived
there to fnd the landlord of the only
hotel in the place also dead of apop
lexy.
Here are other illustrations:
A woman at Broken Hill died late in
the afternoon from heat apoplexy. At
$50 the same evening the daughter,
upon arrival, found the mothers dead
body in an advanced stage of decom
position.
At Broken Hill also, the tempera-
ture Of body being taken by doctor
an hour and a half after death was
found to be 1902 degrees. At Bourke,
in fit of lunacy induced by the exces-
siye heat, a man procured an Ak and
cut down several telegraph poles be-
fore he could be secured by the police.
The margin OF Lake Copage was
streWn with tons of fish killed by the
heat.
A thermometer hung in the shade at
the coolest point on the River Darling, |
the largest river in New South Wales. |
registered 10Y degrees as the lowest at
the coolest hour of the night and 129 |
degrees as the highest during the heat
of the day for these twenty-six days |
During this same time the heat one
one day in the city of Adelaide was 1872 |
degrees.