BRICKFIELDER, a term originally used in New South Wales for a hot scorching dust-laden northerly wind of the sirocco class blowing from the interior, where the sandy wastes, bare of vegetation in summer, are intensely heated by the sun. The name has been extended to similar winds in other parts of Aus tralia. These hot winds blowing strongly, often for several days at a time, defy all attempts to keep the dust down, and parch all vegetation ; but being exceedingly dry and hot they also destroy injurious disease germs. The northern brickfielder is almost invariably followed by a strong "southerly buster," cloudy and cool from the ocean. The two winds are dependent on the same cause, viz., a cyclonic system over the Australian Bight. These systems frequently extend inland as a narrow V-shaped depression (the apex northward) bringing the winds from the north on their eastern sides and from the south on their western. Hence as the narrow system passes eastward the wind suddenly changes from north to south, and the thermometer has been known to fall 15 degrees in 20 minutes.