412 ATMOSPHERIC CHANGES. 



near Banks Strait. In the meantime the Beadle 



o 



sailed for Sydney to receive the stores we expected 

 from England. 



March 10. — This was our second day from the 

 Derwent ; but owing to the prevalence of N.E. 

 winds we had not made further progress than to be 

 at noon, thirty miles east from Cape Pillar. The 

 atmospheric changes during this day were curious. 

 The morning broke hazy, with a moderate breeze 

 from N.N.E., which gradually subsiding and veer- 

 ing at the same time to E.S.E., left us becalmed for 

 three or four hours ; thick impenetrable fogs mean- 

 while passed at intervals to the S.W. ; and whenever 

 this obstruction to our vision was removed, could be 

 seen a dark heap of clouds collecting, some of which 

 detaching themselves passed rapidly over our heads. 

 About three p.m. there was the sighing of a breeze 

 from that quarter. The barometer, also, at this time, 

 ceased falling and stood at 29.57", being as much 

 as two-tenths lower than what it was an hour before, 

 and havino; fallen since eio^ht a.m. four-tenths. 



The rapid depression of the mercury was quite 

 perceptible to the eye. Under reduced sail the 

 ship, like the petrel with closed wing, waited the 

 coming blast. A dense fog enveloped us ; but an 

 hour after the barometer had ceased falling, it lifted 

 up and revealed a long sheet of hissing foam 

 crowning the troubled waters that were rolling, 

 urged by the tempest, tumultuously towards us from 

 the south-west. For a while the heavy reduced 



