152 SINGULAR SUNSET. 



a detached islet lying a mile off its north-cast ex- 

 treme. 



May S. —We fetched in under the lee of Easter 

 Group as the north-west gale of this morning com- 

 menced. The barometer did not indicate the ap- 

 proach of the gale, falling with it, and acting as in 

 those we had encountered at Swan River. The 

 sunset of the two days preceding had presented a 

 very lurid appearance, and the most fantastically 

 shaped clouds had been scattered over the red western 

 sky. It seemed as though nature had determined 

 to entertain us with a series of dissolving views. 

 Headlands and mountains with cloud-capped pinna- 

 cles appeared and faded away ; ships under sail 

 floated across the sky ; towers and palaces reared 

 their forms indistinctly amid the vapour, and then 

 vanished, " like the baseless fabric of a dream.'* 



The winds since the 29th had been verv easterlv ; 

 but early on the 1st became fresh from north-east ; 

 a stagnant suspicious calm then succeeded, during 

 the forenoon of the 2nd. At noon the glassy sur- 

 face of the water began to darken here and there in 

 patches with the first sighing of the breeze, which 

 soon became steady at north-west, and troubled the 

 whole expanse as far as the eye could reach. It was 

 not, however, as I have said, before daylight of the 

 3rd that the jjale commenced in earnest, continuing 

 with great violence, accompanied with heavy squalls 

 of rain, till noon next day, when the wind had 

 veered to IS. S. W. During this time the whole 



