Page:A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 1.djvu/376

150

And the bearings from different stations in the port were conformable to this variation, except at Cape Donington, where, at a station on the north-western part, it appeared to be as much as 4½° east.

The observations for the variation on board the ship, at anchor in the lower part of the port, gave 2° 23′ west, when the ship's head was eastward, and 0° 53′ east, at south-south-east. According to the first, which were taken by lieutenant Flinders whilst the ship lay under Stamford Hill, the true variation should be 0° 51′ east; but by the second, observed by myself near Cape Donington, 2° 7′ east, or nearly the same as was found in Memory Cove. Were the mean taken, it would be 1° 29′, or 10′ less than at the head of the port.

From Mr. Flinders' remarks upon the Tide, it appeared that the rise did not exceed three-and-half feet; and that, like Princess-Royal Harbour, there was only one high water in twenty-four hours, which took place at night, about eleven hours after the moon's passage over the meridian, or one hour before it came to the lower meridian; yet at Thorny Passage, which is but a few leagues distant, there were two sets of tide in the day. This difference, in so short a space, appears extraordinary; but it may perhaps be accounted for by the direction of the entrance to the port, which is open to the north-east, from whence the ebb comes.

On the 5th of March in the morning, we ran down the harbour, and anchored under Cape Donington at the entrance of Spalding Cove, in 7 fathoms, soft mud; the north-western extremity of the point bearing N. 16° E., one mile, and partly hiding Point Bolingbroke. In the evening, lieutenant Fowler returned from his search. He had rowed and walked along the shore as far as Memory Cove, revisited Thistle's Island, and examined the shores of the isles in Thorny Passage; but could find neither any traces of our lost people nor fragments of the wreck. He had killed two or three kanguroos upon Thistle's Island.

On the following morning, I landed at Cape Donington to take