Page:A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 2.djvu/79

Broad Sound.]

curlews; and we saw in the upper part, some pelicans, an individual of a large kind of crane, and another of a white bird, in form resembling a curlew. Many turtle were seen in the water about Long Island, and from the bones scattered around the deserted fire places, this animal seemed to form the principal subsistence of the natives; but we had not the address to obtain any. Hump-backed whales frequent the entrance of the sound, and would present an object of interest to a colony. In fishing, we had little success with hook and line; and the nature of the shores did not admit of hauling the seine.

The climate here, being one degree within the tropic, was warm at this season, which may be considered as the spring and the driest time of the year. On board the ship, the height of the thermometer did not exceed 76°, with the warm winds from the northward, but at the tents it averaged at noon somewhat above 90°; and the musketoes and sand flies were very troublesome at all places near the mangroves. We did not see any snakes or other venemous reptiles or insects.

The errors of the time keepers from mean Greenwich time, at noon there Sept. 26, and their mean rates of going during seven days, of which four were before and three after they had been let down the second time, were as under: These errors and rates were found by lieutenant Flinders, from equal altitudes taken with a sextant on a stand, and using an artificial horizon of quicksilver.

The longitudes given by the time keepers on Sept. 12 a.m. at Upper Head, with the Port-Jackson rates, were these: