erate from the westward; and on
that previous to it of about the same strength from the northward. The
ship's position at noon of the latter day was about 130 miles to the
North-East by East of Mangaia Island. The duration of this storm, then,
may be considered to have been from 4 P.M. to midnight, in which eight
hours the wind had veered gradually from East round by South to
West-South-West. The veering being much more rapid between 8 and 9 P.M.
when the storm was at its height, the ship must at that time, have been
nearer the focus. The tack on which the Favourite was hove to carried her
into the course of the hurricane, or rather placed her in a position to
be overtaken by it, as it passed along to the southward and westward; but
as the ship broke off to the westward and northward, she fell out of its
north-western edge. Doubtless, if a West-North-West course had been
pursued in the first instance, or at noon on the 17th, the Favourite
would have avoided the storm. It is to be regretted that the barometer
was broken in the commencement of the hurricane, when it was unusually
low, having been falling for some time before. Besides this, there was
ample warning in the unusually gloomy lurid appearance of the sky; the
weather also was misty, with showers of rain as the ship approached the
course of the storm.)

BANKS STRAIT.

Leaving Sydney, we resumed our work to the southward; and towards the end
of October anchored under Swan Island, lying midway on the south side of
Banks Strait, which trends West by North, with a width of twelve miles, a
length of seventeen, and a depth of from 16 to 25 fathoms; it is formed
by the north-east point of Tasmania and the islands lying to the south of
Flinders. Barren Island, one of the latter, has a remarkable peak at its
south-eastern end, and some high rounded hills on the north-western; it
is twenty-two miles in extent, lying in an east and west direction. It is
separated from Flinders by a channel, which I named after Sir John
Franklin, four miles wide, thickly strewed with islands and shoals. The
eastern entrance is almost blocked up by sandbanks, extending off five
miles and a half from a large island (called by us after the Vansittart,
but known to the sealers by the name of Gun-carriage Island) and leaving
only a narrow, shifting passage of 2 and 4 fathoms between their northern
side and Flinders Island. The anchorages which lie in the western part of
Franklin Channel are not