Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/105

Dec.] when a breeze uddenly pringing up from N.N.E. brought with it a thick fog, which concealed the un from our view for the pace of a quarter of an hour. It is very remarkable that the mercury in the barometer, intead of falling in conequence of this change of weather, tood a line and a half higher than before, during the whole time that the fog continued. I dare not hazard any conjecture of my own in order to account for this phenomenon, which will appear the more atonihing to perons converant in natural philoophy, as this circumtance ought to have diminihed the elaticity of the air intead of augmenting it: beides, there was no reaon to believe that the fog was occaioned by the exploion of any volcano.

On the 3d of January we enjoyed the pectacle of a lunar rainbow. This planet was encompaed, at ten o'clock in the evening, with two concentric circles, that preented all the colours of the olar rainbow in revered order. The larget of the circles did not occupy more than five degrees in the ky.

As this phenomenon, produced by the decompoition of the rays of the moon, appeared between the planet and us, the primatical colours naturally preented themelves in an order the revere of what takes place in the olar rainbow; becaue