Page:Tracks of McKinlay and party across Australia.djvu/184

 on one occasion causing the waters of the depot lake to recede for the time six hundred yards. The evaporative power of these winds was quite marvellous; owing to the comparatively small water area which they blew over they were usually imperfectly supplied with moisture, and had therefore a hot and dry feeling. On the other hand, after abundant rains the cold produced by the extended surface of evaporation greatly modified the climate. By thermometric observations taken between 10th November and 20th December, the latter date being towards the middle of the antipodean summer, the temperature varied as follows, premising that the party were in south latitude 27° and 28° in the midst of this lake district: at sunrise or daylight it varied from 54° to 85°; at sunset the temperature was usually a good deal higher, as high sometimes as 90° and 100°. In the daytime with the powerful sun, the burning ground, and the imperfect shelter, the heat was sometimes, of course, much more extreme. We now turn to Mr. McKinlay's journal.

Oct. 17th. At depôt making arrangements for a start; out in search of the water the whites are supposed to be at. I will take with me Mr. Hodgkinson, Middleton, and a native of this country, Bullenjani (who seems to say he knows