CLIMATE AND PREVALENT WINDS 205 



short duration, dragonflies are almost invariably seen on the 

 islands. They do not make a successful footing, and they 

 do not become permanent additions to the fauna, doubtless 

 because of the scarcity of fresh water ; but they show by their 

 coming the lines by which pioneer species may invade distant 

 islands and, finding a suitable environment, become settlers. 

 Stray birds, as swallows and wagtails, have come after these 

 winds, but their stay is brief. 



It is the northerly and westerly winds that bring the 

 cyclones which have played so important a part in the history 

 of the Ross settlement, and considering the extreme lowness of 

 the islands, and the normal force of the wind and waves, it seems 

 wonderful that anything should be left standing after a cyclone 

 has passed the group. Four recorded cyclones have visited 

 the islands, and on two occasions have practically left them 

 waste. 



In 1862 a cyclone wrecked the settlement; again in 1876, 

 on Jan. 28, terrible damage was done, and the flourishing 

 condition of the little band of settlers was turned again to 

 hardships and privations. The third cyclone occurred on 

 Feb. 4, 1893; the wind was mostly from the north and north- 

 west, the barometer remained between 29*82 and 29*45 inches 

 from 6 A.M. on Feb. 4 till 6 a.m. on Feb. 6, and during that 

 time 30,905 coconut palms were uprooted and much other 

 damage was done. On March 4, 1902, a fourth cyclone 

 swept over the group, and it is recorded by the Pulu Tikus 

 meteorological records. At 9 a.m. the barometer stood at 

 29*40 and between 10 a.m. and noon fell to 28*95 inches. 

 The wind, which at first blew steadily from the south-west, 

 gradually worked round with increasing force until it blew 

 from the nor'-nor'-west with cyclonic violence. No measure- 

 ment of rainfall was possible as the rain-gauge was wrecked, 

 nor was it possible to take other observations. Over 2000 

 coconut palms were uprooted on Pulu Tikus alone, and up- 

 wards of 300,000 trees were blown down in the entire group, 

 and yet this was by no means comparable to the former 

 cyclones for its violence. In the cyclone of 1876, of which a 



