540 APPENDIX. 



It was not until we had reached Point Swan, in latitude 

 16" 20' S. that we experienced any of the bad weather that is 

 usually met with, at this season of the year, a few degrees to 

 the northward ; it commenced in the last week of January, 

 and continued until the middle of February, during which 

 period, there were some strong gales from the westward, 

 between N.W. and S.W. accompanied by heavy rain, thunder 

 and lightning ; but although there was a good deal of dirty 

 weather, it was by no means constant, as there were occasional 

 intervals of fine weather, with moderate westerly winds. This 

 was the only bad weather on this part of the coast, during the 

 season, that could be said to be caused by the westerly mon- 

 soon, if we except the E.S.E. squalls, that do not occur in 

 the easterly monsoon. 



While this weather lasted, the easterly squalls were quite 

 suspended, and the heavy bank of clouds that had generally 

 been noticed in the S.E. had dispersed for the time ; but 

 after the strong westerly winds had ceased, the weather was 

 generally fine, and the wind mostly from some western point; 

 there were occasional showers, and the clouds in the eastern 

 horizon resumed their threatening appearance, bringing some 

 hard squalls, and rain from that quarter. In the middle of 

 March, (being the time when equinoctial gales are looked for 

 in most parts of the world), there were two or three days of 

 squally, unsettled weather, with rain, that seemed to terminate 

 the season of the westerly monsoon. After the 1st of April, 

 the weather was invariably fine, and the easterly squalls had 

 ceased to trouble us ; land and sea breezes became regular, 

 and the easterly monsoon had no doubt set in to the north- 

 ward ; the strongest breezes now were from S.E. but, generally 

 speaking, the winds were very light near the land. 



It does not appear that the westerly monsoon blows with any 

 degree of regularity, to the southward of the 13th degree of 

 south latitude ; although for some degrees south of that, the 

 weather is influenced by it, and winds between W.N.W. and 

 S.W. will be experienced, and from the appearances on many 



