BOW DITCH ISLAND. 21 



24 in., its ordinary standing being 28 in. ; the temperature was 88°. 

 At 6 a. m., the wind again rose with rapidity, blowing down houses 

 and trees, stripping them of their leaves, which filled the air in all 

 directions; the blasts were very severe at intervals of ten minutes. 

 At 8 a. M., a sudden shift of wind took place to the southwest ; after 

 which it moderated, and at noon the weather became clear, the wind 

 still continuing from the southwest, while the upper stratum of clouds 

 was now seen to pass over from the northeast. The following day 

 the wind was in the same direction, with fine clear weather. Mr. 

 Cunningham observes, that the houses were generally blown down 

 after the change of wind occurred. 



The natives relate the occurrence of a similar gale, which did 

 great damage, about nine years before, destroying all the plantations ; 

 and, from their account, its changes took place in a similar manner, 

 from the northeast to the southwest. 



From the great fall of the barometer, and the fury and sudden 

 change of the gale of the 16th, its centre must have passed over Apia. 



Although these severe hurricanes do not happen very frequently 

 at the Samoan Islands, yet, from reports that I received, I am dis- 

 posed to believe that they occur very frequently between them and 

 the Friendly Islands, where scarcely a season passes without some 

 one of the islands suffering from one of these awful calamities. 



It would therefore be advisable for our whale-ships to avoid cruis- 

 ing in the neighbourhood of these groups, during the season of the 

 year that these storms are liable to occur, viz., from the middle of 

 December to the end of March. Some ships have been almost made 

 complete wrecks of, that were so unfortunate as to be overtaken by 

 them. 



At the Samoan Islands, curious atmospheric phenomena are not 

 uncommon. I am indebted to the same source for several notices of 

 halos, and of one in particular, which happened at Fasetootai, about 

 twenty miles to the westward of Apia, on the 1st March, 1840. The 

 day was very clear, and, till near noon, no clouds were seen ; the sky 

 was azure blue in the zenith, deepening into dark purple, or nearly 

 black, on the horizon. At thirty minutes past noon, there was a 

 white ring around the sun, of dazzling brightness, of five degrees 

 width ; beyond it, a ring of white hazy appearance, of the radius of 

 fifteen degrees, a deep-blue colour still continuing between the sun 

 and halo. At 1 p. m., prismatic colours spread over the whole, and 



VOL. V. 6 



