of speculation.
Of a well attested instance of ice being seen at the latter place, I never
heard. At the former place its production is common, and once a few flakes
of snow fell. The difference can be accounted for only by supposing that
the woods stop the warm vapours of the sea from reaching Rose Hill, which
is at the distance of sixteen miles inland; whereas Sydney is but four.*
Again, the heats of summer are more violent at the former place than at the
latter, and the variations incomparably quicker. The thermometer has been
known to alter at Rose Hill, in the course of nine hours, more than 50
degrees; standing a little before sunrise at 50 degrees, and between one
and two at more than 100 degrees. To convey an idea of the climate in
summer, I shall transcribe from my meteorological journal, accounts of two
particular days which were the hottest we ever suffered under at Sydney.

[*Look at the journal which describes the expedition in search of the
river, said to exist to the southward of Rose Hill. At the time we felt
that extraordinary degree of cold were not more than six miles south west
of Rose Hill, and about nineteen miles from the the sea coast. When I
mentioned this circumstance to colonel Gordon, at the Cape of Good Hope, he
wondered at it; and owned, that, in his excursions into the interior parts
of Africa, he had never experienced anything to match it: he attributed
its production to large beds of nitre, which he said must exist in the
neighbourhood.]

December 27th 1790. Wind NNW; it felt like the blast of a heated oven, and
in proportion as it increased the heat was found to be more intense, the
sky hazy, the sun gleaming through at intervals.

At 9 a.m. 85 degrees
At noon 104
Half past twelve 107 1/2
From one p.m. until 20
minutes past two 108 1/2
At 20 minutes past two 109
At Sunset 89
At 11 p.m. 78 1/2

[By a large Thermometer made by Ramsden, and graduated on Fahrenheit's
scale.]

December 28th.

At 8 a.m. 86
10 a.m. 93
11 a.m. 101
At noon 103 1/2
Half an hour past noon 104 1/2
At one p.m. 102
At 5 p.m. 73
At sunset 69 1/2

[At a quarter past one, it stood at only 89 degrees, having, from