In the inland districts to the eastward of the mountains, the
thermometer is upon an average 5 degrees lower in the morning,
and the same number of degrees higher at noon throughout the
winter season, but during the summer months it is 5 degrees
higher at all hours of the day. On the mountains themselves, and
in the country to the westward of them, the climate, in
consequence of their superior elevation, is much more temperate.
Heavy falls of snow take place during the winter, and remain
sometimes for many days on the summits of the loftiest hills; but
in the valleys the snow immediately dissolves. The frosts too are
much more severe, and the winters are of longer duration. All the
seasons indeed are more distinctly marked to the westward of the
mountains, and bear a much stronger resemblance to the
corresponding ones in this country.

From the foregoing account of the state of the weather and
temperature during the various seasons of the year, it will be
seen that the climate of the colony is upon the whole highly
salubrious and delightful. If the summers are occasionally a
little too hot for the European constitution, it will be
remembered that the extreme heats which I have noticed as
happening during the north-west winds, are of but short
continuance; and that the sea and land breezes, which prevail at
this season in an almost uninterrupted succession, moderate the
temperature so effectually, that even new comers are but little
incommoded by it, and the old residents experience no
inconvenience from it whatever. The sea breeze indeed is not so
sensibly felt in the interior as on the coast, by reason of the
great extent of forest which it has to traverse before the
inhabitants of the inland districts can receive the benefit of
it. This circumstance not only diminishes its force, but also
deprives it in a great measure of that refreshing coolness which
it imparts when inhaled fresh from the bosom of the ocean. The
heat consequently in the interior, particularly in low
situations, is much more intense than on the coast; but by way of
compensation for the advantage which in this respect the
districts in the vicinity of the sea possess over the inland
ones, these latter are from the same causes that impede the
approach of the sea breeze, exempt from the sudden and violent
variations of temperature, which are occasioned by the southerly
winds, and are without doubt the reason why pulmonic affections
are so much more