20 BOWDITC II 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, 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 

 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 



