PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
445 
Soon after our arrival in the Typa, a febrile tendency was ex- CHAP, 
perienced throughout the ship, and before we sailed almost every officer 
and seaman on board was affected with a cold and cough, which in some May, 
cases threatened aneumonia ; but the officers who resided in the towm 
were free from complaint until they returned to the ship. The pro- 
bable causes of this were the humid state of the air, the cold heavy 
dews at night, and the oppressively hot weather during the day, added 
to the currents of air which made their way between the islands into 
the Typa, where the atmosphere, penned in on all sides by hills, 
was otherwise excessively close. On this account I think the Typa 
very objectionable, and should recommend the anchorage off Cabreta 
Point in preference. 
By apian of the Typa, which we contrived to make during our visit, 
it appears that the depth of water is diminishing in the harbour, and 
that in some parts of the channel there is not more than ten feet and 
a half at low water spring tides ; the rise of the tide at this time being 
seven feet one inch. The channel has shifted since the surveys of 
Captains King and Hey wood, and new land-marks for entering, which 
I have given in my Appendix, are become necessary. 
On leaving Macao we hoped that the S. W. monsoon would set in, 
and carry us expeditiously to the northward; instead ot this, however, 
We were driven down upon the island of Leuconia in the parallel of 
17° 16' N. where we perceived the coast at a great distance. Here it 
fell calm, and the weather, which had been increasing in temperature 
since our departure from Macao, became oppressively hot, the thermo- 
meter sometimes standing at 89° in the shade, and the mean height for 
the day being 85°, 7 of Fahrenheit. 
About this time we saw several splendid meteors, which left trains 
of sparks as they descended. On the 6th a parhelion was visible at 
21° 50' on the south side of the sun, when about 2° of altitude, and as 
we passed Orange Island we felt a sudden shock, accompanied by a 
momentary gust of wind which threatened the masts : the sky at this 
time was quite clear and cloudless. 
On the 7th we saw the south Bashee Islands, celebrated as one of 
