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rule become really noticeable until after Christmas. Taking a temperature of 90° in the shade as the criterion of a hot day, we find an average of less than 1 in October, 3 in November, 7 in December, 11 in January, 11 in February, 8 in March, and 2 in April. This number (43 in all) seems rather formidable, but generally the heat is not felt oppressively on account of the short portion of the day during which it lasts on each occasion. On a normal hot summer day a sea breeze always sets in about noon on the coast and reaches Perth about 2 p.m. The temperature then commences to fall, and the evening and night are delightfully cool and pleasant. Occasionally a protracted spell of hot weather is experienced, but even then the nights are generally cool. The longest of these spells without a break occurred in 1896, when the maximum exceeded 90° on every date between January 25 and February 12—19 in all. But the severest heat was apparently in January and February, 1880. The highest reading that has so far been recorded in Perth is 116.7°, which occurred in January, 1878.

Notwithstanding the fact that the monthly means are usually higher than those for the principal cities in South Australia, Victoria, and New South Wales, and that we are in a lower latitude than any of these, the same remark may be applied to the summer climate as to the winter. It appears to be milder than the others. One notices the absence here of those violent changes which are sometimes experienced in the other States. When a cool change comes after a spell of hot weather it seems to steal upon the land gradually. The appearance of soft, watery cumulus clouds in the west generally about sunset announces the arrival of the welcome change. That evening will be cooler than the preceding ones, but not remarkably so, and next day it may be more or less cloudy, but only moderately cool. At night probably a few light showers, and we realize that a definite change has occurred. Whether or not the sudden changes experienced elsewhere act as a tonic it is difficult to say, but at all events they rarely if ever occur in Perth.

A lengthy description of this is unnecessary; and, unfortunately, our knowledge is derived mainly from coastal stations. The year may be divided into two seasons—wet and dry—the former lasting from the middle or the end of November to the end of March. During this period the weather is very unpleasant, the maximum temperature every day being close to or above 100°. Records of 110° are by no means infrequent, and the thermometer has even reached 120°, the highest reading ever registered in the State being 123° at Onslow in February, 1896.

Thunderstorms, accompanied by heavy rain, are frequently experienced, and it is during this season that the willy-willy occasionally visits the north-west coast. A moderate rainfall can generally be relied upon down to about latitude 20°, but south of that it is uncertain. Sometimes it will be very heavy and at other times hardly a drop will fall. The heaviest ever recorded was 36.49 in. at Whim Creek, near Cossack, on April 2-3, 1898.

The severest drought occurred between June, 1890, and January, 1892, during the whole of which period (20 months) only 73 points of rain were recorded as the mean for the Cossack District.

In the winter months or dry season the climate is considered by the inhabitants to be most enjoyable. An occasional wet day is experienced, but the weather is for the most part fine, clear, calm, and pleasant.

It is only within the last few years that any meteorological records have been obtainable from the interior districts of the State, and upon these it is hazardous to found a very definite opinion as to the climate. Up to the end of 1899, for instance, the possible occurrence of such a succession of wet, stormy days as were actually experienced in 1900 would scarcely be credited.

The climate is a mixture of the two already described. Sometimes the tropical rains come across; sometimes the winter storms of the South-West and Southern districts extend well inland, and sometimes both sources of rain fail and a drought ensues. In the summer it is a climate to be endured as patiently as possible. On the Coolgardie goldfields the heat waves are varied by the cool changes which pass from west to east along the south coast; but from the Murchison northwards the heat is very disagreeable indeed, while the inhabitants frequently find all the recognized languages quite inadequate for a description of the flies and dust.

As a kind of compensation, the winter season is delightful. Very little rain falls and the weather is cold, clear, and bracing.

All through the summer occasional thunderstorms may be looked for, and it sometimes happens, as already described, that monsoonal rains come right through this district from the north-west to south-east. The severest and most continuous of which we have any record occurred in March and April, 1900, but geological signs seem to indicate that heavy floods have occurred in past years.

To summarize briefly we may take Perth as a fair and general indication of the climate of Western Aus-