]08 MARINE BAROMETER. 



even a basis for it, that a complete system is rather the object 



of anxious hope than of reasonable expectation. Much has 



been done toward it, but so much appears to remain, that 



any addition to the common stock, however small, or though 



devoid of philosophical accuracy, I have thought would be 



received by the learned with candour. With this prepos- 



, session, I venture to submit to them some observations upon 



the movement and state of the mercury upon the coasts of 



New Holland and New South Wales, the Terra Australis, 



or Australia, of the earlier charts. 



The land and 'f j,p principal circumstance that has led me to think these 



more partlcu- observations worth some attention, is the coincidence that 



Jarly indicated, took place between the rising and falling of the mercury, 



and also their ^^^^ ^j^^ setting in of winds that blew from the sea and from 



strength. *= 



off the land, to which there seemed to be at least as much 



reference, as to the strength of the wind or state of the at- 

 mosphere; a circumstance that I do not know to have been 

 before noticed. The immediate relation of the most mate- 

 rial of these facts, it is probable, will be more acceptable 

 than any prefatory hypothesis of mine ; and to it, therefore, 

 1 proceed ; only premising, that a reference to the chart of 

 Australia will be necessary to the proper understanding of 

 some of the examples. 



My examination of the shores of this extensive country 

 began at Cape LeuAven, and continued eastward along the 

 south coast. In King George's Sound, December 20, 1801, 

 after a gale from WSW, the mercury had risen from 29,42 

 to 29,84, and was nearly stationary for tv/o days, the wind 

 being then moderate at N W, with cloudy weather. On the 

 22d, the wind shifted to SW, blew fresh, and heavy showers 

 of rain occasionally fell ; but the mercury rose to 30,02, and 

 remained at that height for thirty hours ; and on the weather 

 clearing up, and the wind becoming moderate in (he same 

 quarter, it rose to 30,28. ^c. 



Fresh breezes from E and SE caused a rise in the baro- 

 meter in King George's Sound, once to 30,20, and a second 

 time to 30,18, although the weather at these times was hazy: 

 but with light winds from the same direction, which were 

 probably local sea breezes only, the mercury stood about 

 29,95 in that neighbourhood. 



'^d Example, Jan. 12, 1802, in D'Entrccasteaux's Archi- 

 pelago, 



