breezes from south and SW it ascended, and stood considerably above 30 inches; with the wind at NE and NNE it also kept above 30 inches, but not so high, nor did it rise so fast, as when the wind was from SSW. From between south and east, the winds did not blow during these times. This example does not differ so much from those on the south coast as to be decisive of any thing.
2d. The observations made during a stay of ten weeks at Port Jackson, in May, June, and July, 1802, are more in point than almost any other. Strong eastwardly winds were very prevalent at that time, and were almost always accompanied with rain and squalls; yet this weather was foretold and accompanied by a rise in the barometer, and the general height of the mercury during their continuance was 30,20: higher if the wind was on the south side of ESE, and lower if on the north side of east. The winds from south and SSW, which blow along the shore, kept the mercury up to about 30,10, when they were attended with fine weather, as they generally were; but if the weather was squally, with rain, it stood about 29,95. During settled winds from between WNW and SW, with fine weather, the mercury generally stood very low, down at 29,60;[1] and what is more extraordinary, when these winds were less settled, and the weather dull, with rain occasionally falling, the range of the mercury was usually between 29,80 and 30,10; nearly the same as
- ↑ My friend Colonel Paterson, F.R.S. commander of the troops at Port Jackson, in judging of the approaching weather by the rise and fall in his barometer in the winter season, told me, that he had adopted a rule directly the reverse of the common scale. When the mercury rose high, he was seldom disappointed in his expectation of rainy, bad weather; and when it fell unusually low, he expected a continuance of fine, clear weather, with westwardly winds.
