Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 096.djvu/293

 eastward of south, a second rise took place, and for forty hours the mercury stood as high as 30,45, the wind being then between SE by S and east: the weather was very dull and hazy during the first half of these forty hours, but finer afterwards. As the winds between SE by S and east slanted off the main land, this example seems to be in opposition to the 4th, and leads me to think, that it might have been the very extraordinary kind of haze, and perhaps some peculiarity in the interior part of the land abreast of the Isle of St. that in part occasioned the fall of the mercury with south-east winds; as much, perhaps, as the circumstance of the wind coming from off the shore.

After this rise in the mercury to 30,45, it fell gradually; but, for thirteen days, kept above 30 inches, the winds being generally between SE and SW, but light and variable, and the weather mostly fine.

7th. North-eastwardly winds, off the land, were the next that prevailed; they were light, and accompanied with cloudy weather and spitting rain. The mercury fell to 29,70, and remained there till the wind shifted to the west and southward, when it began to rise, and in two days was up to 30,42. At that time we were off the projection marked n in the chart, in 139½° east longitude; the wind had then veered to the south-eastward along the shore, with a steady breeze, and the mercury remained nearly stationary so long as it lasted; but on the wind dying off, and flawing from one side and the other, it descended quickly to 30 inches. A breeze then sprung up at NW, which, within twenty-four hours, shifted suddenly to SW, and blew a gale which had near proved fatal to us. It was accompanied with rain and very