part of the continent; but no instance of any general inundation is on record:  on the contrary the seasons appear to be getting drier and drier every year, and the slowness with which any body exposed to the air decomposes, would argue the extreme absence of moisture in the atmosphere.  It will be remembered that one of my bullocks died in the Pine Forest when I was passing through it in December, 1844.  In July, 1845, when Mr. Piesse was on his route home from the Depot in charge of the home returning party, he passed by the spot where this animal had fallen; and, in elucidation of what I have stated, I will here give the extract of a letter I subsequently received from him from India.  Speaking of the humidity of the climate of Bengal, he says:  “It appears to me that heat alone is rather a preservative from decomposition; of which I recollect an instance, in the bullock that died in the march through the Pine scrub on the 1st of January, 1845.  When I passed by the spot in the following July, the carcase was dried up like a mummy, and was in such a perfect state of preservation as to be easily recognised.”

No stronger proof, I apprehend, could have been adduced of the dryness of the atmosphere in that part of the interior, or more corroborative of the intensity of heat there during the interval referred to; but the singular and unusual effects it had on ourselves, and on every thing around was equally corroborative of the fact.  The atmosphere on some occasions was so rarified, that we felt a difficulty in breathing, and a buzzing sensation on the crown of the head, as if a hot iron had been there.

There were only two occasions on which the thermometer was noticed to exceed the range of 130 degrees in the shade, the solar intensity at the same time being nearly 160 degrees.  The extremes between this last and our winter’s cold, when the thermometer descended to 24 degrees was 133 degrees.  I observe that Sir Thomas Mitchell gives the temperature at the Bogan, in his tent at 117 degrees and when exposed to the wind at 129 degrees; but I presume that local causes, such as radiation from stones and sand, operated more powerfully with us than in his case.  Whilst we were at the Depot about May, the water of the creek became slightly putrid, and cleared itself like Thames water; and during the hotter months of our stay there, it evaporated at the rate of nearly an inch a day, as shewn by a rod Mr. Browne placed in it to note the changes, but the amount varied according to the quiescent or boisterous state of the atmosphere.  It will readily be believed that in so heated a region the air was seldom still; to the currents sweeping over it we had to attribute the loathsome and muddy state of the water on which we generally subsisted after we left that place, for the pools from which we took it were so shallow as to be stirred up to the consistency of white-wash by the play and action of the wind on their surfaces.  During our stay at the Depot the barometer never rose above 30.260, or fell below 29.540.