X.] TYPHOON OF OCTOBER 3nd, 18S2. 229 



to south-west, we kept away on the other tack. By the afternoon of 

 the 30th the gale had practically blown itself out, and we resumed 

 our original course with a fresh breeze from the north-west. 



Early next morning the wind had fallen so light that we had to 

 recommence steaming. At noon we were in Lat. 44° N. ; Long. 

 148° 44' E. ; the barometer standing at 30'42 inches. In the 

 afternoon we sighted Eturup or Staten Island, the penultimate and 

 largest island of the Kuriles. It had fallen a " clock cahn" in sailor 

 language, and all hands found it a great relief after the knocking 

 about we had experienced during the two preceding days. It was 

 not for long, however. During the afternoon a uniform grey haze 

 came over the sky, and a large halo was noticed round the sun. 

 An ominous, long swell came up from the southward, and at 8 p.m. 

 an easterly breeze, accompanied by sharp showers of rain, prepared 

 us for the onset of a dirty night. The barometer had begun to fall 

 at 4 P.M. We had hoped to reach Akishi Bay, on the coast of Yezo, 

 early the following day, but through the night the weather grew 

 steadily worse, and at 5 a.m., the wind having increased to a strong 

 gale, and the weather being far too thick to attempt to make the 

 land, we altered course to S.W. by W., being then, by dead 

 reckoning, 16 miles off Cape Usu, the easternmost promontory of 

 Yezo. An hour later the w^ind backed to E. by IST., the rain 

 descending in sheets ; and taking everything into consideration, we 

 concluded that we had fallen in with a typhoon travelling north- 

 eastwards, an unusual phenomenon in such high latitudes. 



By 8 o'clock the Marcliesa, under storm canvas, was running 

 before the heaviest gale she had yet encountered, in the endeavour 

 to get as much sea-room as possible. The law of these circular 

 storms is so well known and so invariable that, under ordinary 

 circumstances, there is no difficulty in handling a ship so as to 

 bring her as quickly as possible out of the track of the hurricane. 

 But here our proper course — west — was impracticable on account 

 of the land, and we were driven into the unpleasant alternative of 

 having, in all probability, to meet the centre of the storm. 



