"The immediate cause of the hot winds has given rise to much speculation. . . . The favourite theory is that they are generated in the sandy plains of the interior, which becoming powerfully heated, pour their glowing breath upon the fertile regions of the south."
1871. Dingo, `Australian Rhymes,' p. 7:
"A hot wind swift envelopes me
In dust from foot to head."
1879. A. R. Wallace, `Australasia,' (1893) vol. i. p. 39:
"They are evidently produced by the sinking down to the surface of that north-westerly current of heated air which . . . is always passing overhead. The exact causes which bring it down cannot be determined, though it evidently depends on the comparative pressure of the atmosphere on the coast and in the interior. Where from any causes the north-west wind becomes more extensive and more powerful, or the sea breezes diminish, the former will displace the latter and produce a hot wind till an equilibrium is restored. It is the same wind passing constantly overhead which prevents the condensation of vapour, and is the cause of the almost uninterrupted sunny skies of the Australian summer."
1879. Rev. J. H. Zillmann, `Australian Life,' p. 40:
"Scientific men, however, tell us that those hot winds are just what make Australia so healthy a climate—that they act as scavengers, and without them the death-rate of the colonies would be alarmingly great."
<hw>Hot-windy</hw>,<i> adj</i>. See above.
1871. Dingo, `Australian Rhymes,' p. 18:
"A spell that still makes me forget
The dust and the hot-windy weather."