Discoveries in Australia, Volume 2: Discoveries in Australia; with an Account of the Coasts and Rivers; Explored and Surveyed During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in The; Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43. By Command of the Lords Commissioners; Of the Admiralty. Also a Narrative of Captain Owen Stanley's Visits; To the Islands in the Arafura SeaStokes, John Lort
History
Discoveries in Australia, Volume 2: Discoveries in Australia; with an Account of the Coasts and Rivers; Explored and Surveyed During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in The; Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43. By Command of the Lords Commissioners; Of the Admiralty. Also a Narrative of Captain Owen Stanley's Visits; To the Islands in the Arafura Sea
Stokes, John Lort
Australia -- Description and travel; Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Natural history -- Australia
During our visit to this part of the continent we found the climate well
suited for Europeans; but what it might be in the middle of the
north-west monsoon we had no opportunity of ascertaining. At its
commencement in the month of November, Flinders found the thermometer to
range on board between 81 and 90 degrees; but on shore, he says, that in
the course of the day it might have been about seven degrees higher; the
temperature, however, being alleviated by constant breezes either from
sea or land, it was seldom oppressive. In July, as I have already stated,
the thermometer, on one occasion, at 5 A.M., was down to 51 degrees; and
on another, at noon, up to 87 degrees, being, in the first instance, six
degrees lower than it was on board, and in the second, seven degrees
higher, which gave an excess in the shore range of thirteen degrees.
Generally on the land it was below 62 degrees before 7 A.M. and after 6
P.M. The range of the barometer in November was from 29.70 to 30.06;
whilst with us, in July, its maximum height was 30.08, and minimum 30.02;
the lowest being in both seasons with winds from the land, coinciding
with what had been observed on other parts of the continent, that winds
from the sea raise the mercury, and those from the land depress it.
The winds in July were fresh from South to South-East for about two days
before and after the change in the moon. They began at midnight,
increasing to almost a strong breeze between five and six in the morning,
and dying away again towards noon, when a calm of five hours duration
succeeded; at other times light land and seabreezes prevailed.
It will appear from this description of the winds in the Gulf of
Carpentaria that they bear a great similarity to those experienced at the
same season on the North-West coast, near Depuch Island; and the
circumstance of the temperature being lowest when they were strongest
from the land is also the same. This was there supposed to have been
occasioned by the great radiation of heat from the land over which they
blew; but as the country at the head of the Gulf of Carpentaria is not of
a cold clayey nature, the idea is naturally suggested that there must be
a great extent of swampy ground in the interior, which strengthens the
opinion I have before expressed.
SUPPOSED ISLANDS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account