Our Dogs, Pigs
And Fowls, Lay Panting In The Shade, Or Were Rushing Into The Water.
I Remarked That A
Hen belonging to me, which had sat for a fortnight,
frequently quitted her eggs, and shewed great uneasiness,
but never
Remained from them many minutes at one absence; taught by instinct
that the wonderful power in the animal body of generating cold in air
heated beyond a certain degree, was best calculated for the production
of her young. The gardens suffered considerably. All the plants
which had not taken deep root were withered by the power of the sun.
No lasting ill effects, however, arose to the human constitution.
A temporary sickness at the stomach, accompanied with lassitude and headache,
attacked many, but they were removed generally in twenty-four hours
by an emetic, followed by an anodyne. During the time it lasted,
we invariably found that the house was cooler than the open air, and that
in proportion as the wind was excluded, was comfort augmented.
But even this heat was judged to be far exceeded in the latter end
of the following February, when the north-west wind again set in,
and blew with great violence for three days. At Sydney, it fell short
by one degree of what I have just recorded: but at Rose Hill, it was allowed,
by every person, to surpass all that they had before felt, either there
or in any other part of the world. Unluckily they had no thermometer
to ascertain its precise height. It must, however, have been intense,
from the effects it produced. An immense flight of bats driven before
the wind, covered all the trees around the settlement, whence they every moment
dropped dead or in a dying state, unable longer to endure the burning state
of the atmosphere. Nor did the 'perroquettes', though tropical birds,
bear it better. The ground was strewn with them in the same condition
as the bats.
Were I asked the cause of this intolerable heat, I should not hesitate
to pronounce that it was occasioned by the wind blowing over immense deserts,
which, I doubt not, exist in a north-west direction from Port Jackson,
and not from fires kindled by the natives. This remark I feel necessary,
as there were methods used by some persons in the colony, both for estimating
the degree of heat and for ascertaining the cause of its production,
which I deem equally unfair and unphilosophical. The thermometer,
whence my observations were constantly made, was hung in the open air
in a southern aspect, never reached by the rays of the sun, at the distance
of several feet above the ground.
My other remarks on the climate will be short. It is changeable
beyond any other I ever heard of; but no phenomena sufficiently accurate
to reckon upon, are found to indicate the approach of alteration.
Indeed, for the first eighteen months that we lived in the country,
changes were supposed to take place more commonly at the quartering
of the moon than at other times. But lunar empire afterwards lost its credit.
For the last two years and a half of our residing at Port Jackson,
its influence was unperceived. Three days together seldom passed
without a necessity occurring for lighting a fire in an evening.
A 'habit d'ete', or a 'habit de demi saison', would be in the highest degree
absurd. Clouds, storms and sunshine pass in rapid succession. Of rain,
we found in general not a sufficiency, but torrents of water sometimes fall.
Thunder storms, in summer, are common and very tremendous,
but they have ceased to alarm, from rarely causing mischief. Sometimes
they happen in winter. I have often seen large hailstones fall.
Frequent strong breezes from the westward purge the air. These are almost
invariably attended with a hard clear sky. The easterly winds,
by setting in from the sea, bring thick weather and rain, except in summer,
when they become regular sea-breezes. The 'aurora australis'
is sometimes seen, but is not distinguished by superior brilliancy.
To sum up: notwithstanding the inconveniences which I have enumerated,
I will venture to assert in few words, that no climate hitherto known
is more generally salubrious*, or affords more days on which those pleasures
which depend on the state of the atmosphere can be enjoyed,
than that of New South Wales. The winter season is particularly delightful.
[*To this cause, I ascribe the great number of births which happened,
considering the age and other circumstances, of many of the mothers.
Women who certainly would never have bred in any other climate here produced
as fine children as ever were born.]
The leading animal production is well known to be the kangaroo.
The natural history of this animal will, probably, be written
from observations made upon it in England, as several living ones
of both sexes, have been brought home. Until such an account shall appear,
probably the following desultory observation may prove acceptable.
The genus in which the kangaroo is to be classed I leave to better naturalists
than myself to determine. How it copulates, those who pretend to have seen
disagree in their accounts: nor do we know how long the period
of gestation lasts. Prolific it cannot be termed, bringing forth
only one at a birth, which the dam carries in her pouch wherever she goes
until the young one be enabled to provide for itself; and even then,
in the moment of alarm, she will stop to receive and protect it.
We have killed she-kangaroos whose pouches contained young ones
completely covered with fur and of more than fifteen pounds weight,
which had ceased to suck and afterwards were reared by us. In what space
of time it reaches such a growth as to be abandoned entirely by the mother,
we are ignorant. It is born blind, totally bald, the orifice of the ear
closed and only just the centre of the mouth open, but a black score,
denoting what is hereafter to form the dimension of the mouth,
is marked very distinctly on each side of the opening.
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