Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 096.djvu/295

 gale, however, there was. a pretty rapid descent in the barometer to 29,96; but the ascent again was equally rapid, and to a greater height, on the wind becoming moderate. In a short calm that succeeded, the mercury stood at 30,42, but on the wind setting in from the north, which was from off the land, it fell to 30,25, and remained there two days: we had then reached Bass' Strait.

From these examples upon the south coast, it appears, generally, that a change of wind from the northern, to any point in the southern half of the compass, caused the mercury to rise, and a contrary change to fall; and that the mercury stood considerably higher when the wind was from the south side of east and West, than, in similar weather, it did when the wind came from the north side; but, until it is known what are the winds that occasioned the mercury to ascend, and what to descend, upon the other coasts of Australia, it will probably be not agreed, whether it rose in consequence of the south winds bringing in a more dense air from the polar regions, and fell on its being displaced by that which came from the Tropic;—or whether the rise and higher standard of the mercury was wholly, or in part, occasioned by the first being sea winds, and the descent because those from the northward came from off the land.

The height, at which the mercury generally stood upon the south coast, seems to deserve some attention. It was very seldom down to 29,40, and only once to 29,42. Of one hundred and sixty days, from the beginning of December to May, it was nearly one-third of the time above 30 inches; and the second time of passing along the coast, from the 15th of May to the 1st of June, it only once descended to 29,96,