ted
to its temperature, leaving its seasons out of question for the time,
intending to close my remarks on these heads, by a short review of the
state of the agricultural and pastoral interests of the colony at the
present date.

It will be borne in mind that the seasons of Australia are the reverse of
our own; that when in England the ground is covered with snow, there the
sun is hottest, and that when summer heats are ripening our fruits, in
Australia it is the coldest season of the year, December, January,
February, and March being the summer months; June, July, August, and
September the winter ones. An experience of ten years has shewn that the
seasons of South Australia are exceedingly regular, that the rains set in
within a few days of the same period each successive year, and that
during the winter the ground gets abundantly saturated. This regularity
of season may be attributed to the almost insular position of the
promontory of Cape Jarvis, and may be said to be almost local, in
elucidation of which, I may refer to what I have stated in the former
part of my work, of the state of the weather in the valley of the Murray
when the expedition was proceeding up its banks in the month of August,
1844. For some time before there had been heavy rains in the hills, and
it was with some difficulty the drays crossed them. During our stay at
Moorundi, the ranges were covered with heavy clouds, and the mountain
streams were so swollen as to stop one of my messengers; but the sky over
the valley of the Murray was as clear as crystal, morning mists it is
true curled up at early dawn from the bosom of its waters, but they were
soon dissipated, and a sharp frosty night was succeeded by a day of
surpassing beauty.

The regularity, however, both in its commencement and in the quantity of
moisture that falls during the rainy season in the colony, enables the
agriculturist to calculate with certainty upon it, and the only anxiety
of the farmer is to get his grain into the ground sufficiently early, if
possible, to escape the first hot winds. In a region, portions of which
are subject, it must be confessed, to long continued drought, this is no
inconsiderable advantage, although South Australia is not singular in
this respect, for the rainy seasons in the Port Phillip districts are, I
believe, equally regular and more abundant, whilst the climate of Van
Diemen's Land almost approaches to that of England; neither, indeed,
fairly sp