Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/201

Rh there was handshaking all around, and the visitors took their leave. The host accompanied them to the road leading back to town, and there left them, but not until he had pocketed a shilling which Frank tendered him.

Clouds were forming in the sky, and the youths thought it would be prudent to return to the hotel. They did so, and found the rest of the party on the veranda waiting for the promised shower. In a few minutes the rain came down thick and fast, and the wisdom of returning was no longer in doubt. The shower was soon over, however, and then the sun came out as brightly as ever, though there was no apparent change in the temperature.

"You are in the best season of the year," said one of their new acquaintances; "it's fortunate for you that it's not hurricane time now."

"We have here," he continued, "a dry season and a wet one. The former is cool, and lasts from May to October; the latter is hot, and lasts from October to May. During all the dry season, and for a month at each end of the wet one, the climate is delightful, the temperature varying from 70° to 76° or 78°, and the heat of the sun being tempered by breezes from the sea. The mean temperature is about 80°, the extreme ranges thus far recorded being 60° and 122°. From Christmas to March is called the 'hurricane season;' the air is moist and sticky, the temperature averaging 84°, with a humidity so great that one seems to be constantly in a Russian steam-bath. This is the unhealthy season, and fevers and other diseases due to the heat and moisture are common."

Frank asked if hurricanes were frequent during the season.

"Not at all," was the reply, "but when they do come they are in dead earnest. From 1879 to 1886 we didn't have a really severe hurricane; but this is, I believe, the longest interval known to any of the European residents. One old settler