Mr. Flinders's Observations 
252 
off at night, and the mercury descending, I made no scruple 
of anchoring near the shore ; knowing that it would either 
be a calm, or a wind would come off the land ; but if the 
mercury kept up, I stretched off, in the expectation that it 
would freshen up again in a few hours. Amongst the barrier 
reefs, when the wind was dying away, the barometer told 
me, almost certainly, from what quarter it would next spring 
up. If the mercury stood at 30,15, or near it and was rising, 
I expected the proper trade wind ; and if higher, that it 
would be well from the southward, or would blow fresh; 
and if it was up to 30,30, both. The falling of the mercury 
to 30,10 was an indication of a breeze from the north-east- 
ward ; and its descent below 30 inches that it would spring 
up, or shift round to the westward. This regularity of con- 
nection between the barometer and the direction of the wind, 
is perhaps too great to be expected at a different time of the 
year; and it is probable, that we should not have found it 
continue so strictly, had our stay amongst the barrier reefs 
been much prolonged. 
5th. Leaving the east coast in the latitude 17 0 south, we 
steered off to the northward for Torres' Strait, in the latter 
part of October. As we advanced northward, I found the 
mercury stand gradually lower with the same kind of wind 
and weather. The difference was not material till we reached 
the latitude 13°, but afterwards, the south-east wind which 
had before kept the mercury up to 30,15, then permitted it to 
fall to 29,90 ; and the winds from ENE and NNE to 29,85. 
Was this alteration owing to the want of density in the air 
brought in by the south-east winds, in this lower latitude ? — 
to our increased distance from the land or was it, that the 
