20 
BOW DITCH ISLAND. 
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 disposed 
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, w T hich 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 
w 7 as 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 
were very bright. At two o’clock, they had heavy squalls at Fase¬ 
tootai, with the wind at east-northeast. This phenomenon appears 
to have been local, for it was not observed at Apia, only twenty miles 
distant. The wind, however, during its continuance, was found to 
have changed to northwest-by-north, attended with heavy rain, and 
bad weather continued for a fortnight. Both Mr. Cunningham and 
