VII. 



Jan. 

 1826. 



PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 203 



officer and Mr. Smyth, who were at a distance from c ^ p 

 the ship, the column of the water-spout first de- 

 scended in a spiral form, until it met the ascending 

 column a short distance from the sea ;* a second and 

 a third were afterwards formed,f which subsequently 

 united into one large column,:}: and this again sepa- 

 rated into three small spirals, and then dispersed. It 

 is not impossible that the highly rarefied air confined 

 by the woods encircling the lagoon islands may con- 

 tribute to the formation of these phenomena, 



A canoe near the ship very wisely hastened on 

 shore at the approach of the bad weather, for had it 

 been drawn within the vortex of the whirlwind it 

 must have perished. We had the greatest appre- 

 hension for our boats, which were absent during the 

 storm, but fortunately they suffered no injury. 



Neither the barometer nor sympeisometer were 

 sensibly affected by this partial disturbance of the 

 atmosphere ; but the temperature underwent a 

 change of eight degrees, falling from 82° to 74° ; at 

 midnight it rose to 78°. On the day succeeding this 

 occurrence, several water-spouts were seen in the 

 distance, the weather being squally and gloomy. 



After examining the vicinity of Clermont Ton- 

 nere for the island of the Minerva, and seeing no 

 other land, we steered for Serle Island, which was 

 discovered at daylight on the 21st January, bear- 

 ing west. Its first appearance was that of a low 

 strip of land with a hillock at each extremity, but 

 these, on a nearer approach, proved to be clumps of 

 large trees. Admiral Krusenstern, in his valuable 

 Memoir on the South Pacific,§ observes, that Serle 



* See plate (A). f (B.) J (C). 



§ Page 276, 4to. edition. 



