Directory_and_Chronicle_1879 — Page 854

364

PORT AND CUSTOMS REGULATIONS FOR THE PHILIPPINES.

Rule XII. Except in cases in which wrecks or unavoidable damage may occur, any foreign or national ship coming from sea discharging or loading any quantity of goods at a port not open to trade, will incur the confiscation of such goods, and in the contrary case be will incur the penalty provided by Rule X. for cases of fraudulent transhipment.

Rule XIII-Masters of all vessels are obliged to supply the Custom-house officers during their stay on board with suitable lodgings, and allow them to have their meals at the second table, in compliance with the decree of the government of th se Islands, dated 26th August, 1851.

NOTE.-On the 2nd October, 1878, it was notified that the Director General of Finance had been pleased to approve of vessels consigned to the Philippine Islands for the purpose of loading timber touching at any other fit port of Luzon in pre- ference to Manila should it suit their interest to do so.

SAILING DIRECTIONS FOR THE BAY OF MANILA.

At the entrances to the Bay the prevailing winds are, during the greater part of the year, from N. to E.; moderate during the first months of the monsoon, but interrupted at times by strong Northerlies which last from one to three days: fresh when the monsoon is regularly established, particularly so from the outside of the entrances to the inside of Point Limay, from whence to the Bay they are more moderate, and it may be remarked that they are seldom light in the entrances and fresh in the Bay at the same time; calm at the latter end of the monsoon, with squalls during the afternoon from S.E., S., and S.W., indicating the proximities of chargeable weather, and winds from S. to W., which become established during the month of June; light N.E. and S.E. pr. vail now till 9 or 10 a.m., when the sea breeze sets in from S. and S. W. and W. during the intervals of the squalls, which are fresh from S.W., accompanied by thick, cloudy weather and rain. These squalls last six, eigt, and ten days, and even as many as thirty, and from June to September; while they last, fine weather is seldom experienced.

At the beginning of the N.E. monsoon the land winds on the S.E. coast of the Bay are from the E.; from February they shift to S.E., and are generally fresh enough to raise a swell and oblige reefs to be taken in the sails, especially in Boca Chica (the northerly entrance), on account of the strong gusts which come down from the ravines on the Island of Corregidor; they commence about four or five p.m., extending from Point Fuego, on the southern coast outside the Bay, to Point Limay, on the northern coast inside the Bay, and cease before midnight; when these winds are unseasonably late they last longer, and sometimes till late on to the following morning; from April, they are generally very light. In the northern part of the Bay-entrance to Pampanga the land wind shifts to the north about midnight, and when fresh at this spot it extends to all parts of the Bay; it ceases at sunrise, from which time the regular monsoon succeeds it according to the season.

Between the monsoons the winds are generally N.W. outside, but rarely extend inside the Bay, and during these times, especially from September to November, it is when the typhoons or hurricanes usually take place, and oftentimes without any previous warning, not even from the barometers.

During strong N. or N.W. winds there are no land winds, but otherwise they may always be counted upon inside the Bay.

The tides are very moderate, and high water may always be counted upon between eleven and twelve o'clock at the entrance to Manila during conjunction or apposition, and half an hour earlier at the Island of Corregidor; during the rest of the month they are very irregular as to time and duration. The rise and fall never exceed six feet. At the entrance to the Bay when the ebb tide is backed by river currents and strong N.E. winds together, a delay of 12 or 14 hours takes place in the flow.