plums in Mr. Anstey’s garden on the hills are fine beyond description, and could not be surpassed in any part of the world—­it may readily be imagined, therefore, that the intermediate fruit trees, such as the peach, the nectarine, the pear, the cherry, the greengage, and others, are of the most vigorous habits.  All of them, indeed, are standards, and the wood they make during one season, is the best proof that can be given of their congeniality to the soil and climate of the province.

There are in South Australia two periods of the year which are equally deceptive to the stranger.  The one is when the country is burnt up and suffering under the effects of summer heat—­when the earth is almost herbless, and the ground swarms with grasshoppers—­when a dry heat prevails in a calm still air.  The other when vegetation is springing up under the early rains and every thing is green.  Arriving at Adelaide during the first period, the stranger would hardly believe that the country, at any other season of the year, would be so clothed with herbage and look so fresh; arriving at the other, he would equally doubt the possibility of the vegetable kingdom being laid so completely prostrate, or that the country could assume so withered and parched an appearance; but these changes are common to every country under a similar latitude, and it would be unjust to set them down to its prejudice, or advantage.

The following mean of heat at 2 p.m. throughout the year, will give the reader a correct idea of the range of the thermometer.  I have taken 2 p.m. as being the hottest period of the day, and, therefore, nearest the truth.

January 85 106 1/2 70
February 79 94 71
March 77 103 1/2 68 1/2
April 67 1/2 85 55 1/2
May 62 76 53
June 58 67 49
July 55 60 49
August 59 68 52
September 61 72 1/2 55 1/2
October 68 1/2 94 1/2 55
November 74 94 59
December 83 100 68

The west and south-west winds are the most prevalent, blowing for 130 or 140 days in the year.  During the summer months the land and sea breezes prevail along the coast, but in the interior the wind generally commences at E.N.E., and going round with the sun settles at west in the afternoon.

I need not point out to the reader, that the above table only shews the mean of the thermometer during a certain hour of the day; the temperature during the night must necessarily be much lower; the coolness of the night, indeed, generally speaking, makes up for the mid-day heat.  There are some days of the year when hot winds prevails, which are certainly very disagreeable, if not trying.  Their occurrence, however, is not frequent, and will be easily accounted for from natural causes.  They sometimes continue for three or more days, during which time clouds of