Pacific and High Southern Latitudes. 119 
must have passed between the Bay of Islands and the River 
Thames. ‘The greatest force of the gale was between 1 and 8 
oclock A.M. on lst March. At the Bay of Islands a calm 
was observed by Mr. Dana and others, which lasted fifteen 
minutes, after which the wind rapidly hauled round to the 
westward, and blew with increased violence. On board the 
Herald the barometer fell to 28°75; and as the gale was 
experienced first to the northward and eastward, it is certain 
that it came from that quarter, and passed over New Zealand 
ina 8.W. direction. The width of its track was about 500 
miles. 
On the 29th February the Flying Fish was in 40° S. and 
178° 30'E. Atnoon the wind hauled to the southward and 
eastward, and by midnight blew a most violent gale, hauling 
to the eastward, until about 8 p.m. (March 1), when its 
violence moderated. 
About this time the Vincennes was in 50° S. and 185° 
E., and escaped the hurricane, which probably passed to the 
southward of her. 
The author of “Rovings in the Pacific from 1837 to 
1849,” 2 vols., 1851, a merchant long resident at Tahiti, 
states at p. 64, that he met with a most violent gale from the 
northward, on the 29th February, when off the Three Kings, 
at the northern extremity of New Zealand. The gale in- 
creasing they lay-to, when the vessel was thrown on her beam- 
ends. Next day the wind moderated, and gradually veered 
round to the 8.E. ‘The vessel had drifted to the southward 
of the Bay of Islands—hundreds of red bream were seen 
floating about killed by the gale. 
The Flying Fish, and the Rover just mentioned, offer 
two instructive instances of the modification that circular 
storms undergo by the interposition of land. 
The Rover was about 500 miles to the N.W. of the Flying 
