536 HENRY A. HUNT. 
features being the bend in the high pressure isobars, and the | 
dormant low pressure off the coast of Queensland. 
At 9 a.m. on this day there was nothing in the local weather 
conditions which would lead one to anticipate the gale that @ 
eventuated, the winds being generally light, and at Sydney oly 
a light breeze was blowing from the South-south-west ; but ats 
p.m. an unusual fall took place in the barometers to the north-east 
of New South Wales, and the winds there were freshening genet 
ally. On preparing a chart at this hour we found the depression 
was intensifying and had a cyclonic tendency; at 6 p.m mn 
Sydney the wind, which had been blowing from the south-east 
and gradually increasing in velocity, reached the force of gale, 
a thick driving rain began to fall, which continued with little inter 
mission until daybreak next day, when over 2” were registered, 
and an extensive area around the metropolis benefitted to the 
extent of an inch and upwards ; the barometer at this hour also 
began to fall rapidly and steadily, until at 5 a.m. on the 24th it 
read 29-203, and the wind had reached in one squall, lasting only 
a few seconds, the extraordinary rate of one hundred and twenty 
miles per hour, the mean rate of the gale being thirty-two miles 
per hour. 
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