Page:A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 1.djvu/298

72

including myself, that the night tide rose considerably higher than that of the day; which is conformable to our observations in King George's Sound; but with this difference, that in the day we had scarcely any tide at all.

The base line for my survey of the Sound was of 2,46 geographic miles, measured round the curve of the long beach between the two harbours. The other stations whence bearings were taken with the theodolite, were,—in the Sound, four; at the entrance of, and within Princess-Royal Harbour, three; and in Oyster Harbour, four; at each of which, a point with a circle is marked in the plan. The soundings were either taken in the ship, with simultaneous cross bearings, or in boats, generally accompanied with notices of known objects in a line, or the angles between them taken with a sextant.

There are many small, but no very essential differences between my plan and that of captain Vancouver. The most important to navigation, is that in the soundings going into Oyster Harbour: I could find only thirteen feet over the bar, whereas he marked seventeen; a difference, however, which may not improbably have taken place between 1791 and 1801.