SOUTH AFRICA.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12221, 24 April 1914, Page 4

SOUTH AFRICA.

CLIAMTIC CURIOSITIES,

I 'Professor ill. J. Halrvey-Gibson, I Liverpool University, in the courso of I a lecture lie delivered in Edinburgh un- { dor the ausoiccs of tin* Royal Scottish Geographical Society, on! "Tho Flora oF South Africa," took occasion: to issun a. meteorological warning. Wheu he wont out, ho was told not to take an umbrella owing to the dryness of the climate. Th the light or his experience, ho advised anyone, going to South Africa to take one. .When it rained there, it did not come down in drops; it came down in liiniblerfnls. By narrative and 1 lantern view ho then took his audience with hi in over tlio journey which ho himself mado from Capo to Johannesburg. Included in th« views was a snapshot of tlio Hex Hirer Mountains, taken, at eighteen, miles range, and showing the extraordinary clearness of the atmosphere. ; After indicating how the mountains, having been crossed, looked simply like small ridges from the plain beyond, the lecturer described the groat Karroid upland as being like "a wavelcss brown sea, with dozens of small islands with their 'heads cut off." What struck one as a curious fact was, ho said, that while it was expected that one would get warmer as one went north toward* the Equator, one. as a matter of fact, remained about the same, tho increasing height of tho country, up'to about 6000 feet, neutralising tho increase o: temperature. ... Commenting on the tremendous difference in range of temperature, he instanced his experience at Potchpfstroom, where, at half-past five in tho morning, thero was ice on the puddles, and at noon ho was lying below a, cart ! out of the .sun's scorching rays. He explained how, owing to the difference in the rainfall periods, there was shrub growth in the Cape region- and tree growth as one went into Natal, and pointed out that in many places trees were imported for street planting in towns, such, as Mediterranean-, pines and •tho Australian bluegum tree. In conclusion, he described tho curious bush growth of the country, tho clumps being separated from each other bv a few yards, and he told, with screen illustrations, of the curious types of water-storage plants which arc found. Incidentally, he characterised the old story of the foolishness of tho ostrich in buryiiur its head in the sand as a. mvth. When the wild ostrich was frightened, he said, it ran speedily for a short distance amongst the scattered bushes, and then suddenly it ducked its head and long white neck between its legs, ruffled its feathers, and it leoked exactly like the manv bushes on all sides of it. Illustrative of this defensive ingenuity of the bird', the lecture showed, a picture in which there, were no fewer than twenty ostriches, and only three were distinguishable.