204 LIGHT WINDS. 



for this shoal was the fact of its being supposed to 

 lie in the direct route of vessels sailing between 

 Timor and the West coast of Australia. But after 

 searching from the 9th to the 14th, and sounding 

 repeatedly without getting bottom, we came to the 

 conclusion that it did not exist. Breakers could 

 have been seen at least ten miles from the Beagle's 

 mast-head, as there was a considerable swell from 

 the south-west. 



On the 15th we were in lat. 16" 05' S. and long. 

 118" 16' East. After one of those stagnant calms 

 so frequently met with near the equator, we got a 

 light westerly breeze on the morning of the 18th. 

 Towards midnight it freshened, veering from S. W. 

 by S. to W. S. W. with some rather sharp rain 

 squalls. It appears that the westerly winds had 

 already set in, and that the calm we experienced on 

 the 17th was an unoccupied space between the 

 easterly and westerly winds. There are few parts 

 of the globe where light winds prevail so much as on 

 the North-west coast of New Holland, particularly 

 between the latitudes of 13" and 17°, and from one to 

 two hundred miles from the land. They are, how- 

 ever, excepting in the months of January, February, 

 and March, from the eastward, south east in the 

 morning and east in the afternoon. The winds 

 prevented us from making the coast to the east- 

 ward of Depuch Island ; and as we had failed in 

 getting a supply of provisions at Timor, we were 

 compelled to relinquish the plan of continuing the 



