A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 15: Forming A Complete History Of The Origin And Progress Of Navigation, Discovery, And Commerce, By Sea And Land, From The Earliest Ages To The Present TimeKerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 15: Forming A Complete History Of The Origin And Progress Of Navigation, Discovery, And Commerce, By Sea And Land, From The Earliest Ages To The Present Time
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
By ditto, at the Cape rate, it was 174 56 12
Variation of the compass, being the mean
of six needles, observed on board the
ship 12 40 0 E.
By the same needles on shore, it was 13 53 0
The dip of the south end, observed on
shore was 63 42 0
By a mean of the results of eleven days observations, the time-keeper
was too slow for mean time on February 22, at noon, by 11h 50' 37",396;
and she was found to be losing on mean time at the rate of 2",913 per
day. From this rate the longitude will be computed, till some other
opportunity offers to ascertain her rate anew. The astronomical clock,
with the same length of pendulum as at Greenwich, was found to be losing
on sidereal time 40",239 per day.
It will not be amiss to mention, that the longitude, by lunar
observations, as above, differs only 6' 45" from what Mr Wales made it
during my last voyage; his being so much more to the W. or 174° 18' 30".
The latitude of Ship Cove is 41° 6' 0", as found by Mr Wales.
SECTION VIII.
_Mr Anderson's Remarks on the Country near Queen Charlotte's Sound.--The
Soil.--Climate.--Weather.--Winds.--Trees.--Plants.--Birds.--Fish.--Other
Animals.--Of the Inhabitants.--Description of their Persons.--Their
Dress.--Ornaments.--Habitations.--Boats.--Food and Cookery,--Arts.--Weapons
--Cruelty to Prisoners.--Various Customs.--Specimen of their Language._
The land every where about Queen Charlotte's Sound is uncommonly
mountainous, rising immediately from the sea into large hills, with
blunted tops. At considerable distances are valleys, or rather
impressions on the sides of the hills, which are not deep, each
terminating toward the sea in a small cove, with a pebbly or sandy
beach; behind which are small flats, where the natives generally build
their huts, at the same time hauling their canoes upon the beaches. This
situation is the more convenient, as in every cove a brook of very fine
water (in which are some small trout) empties itself into the sea.
The bases of these mountains, at least toward the shore, are constituted
of a brittle, yellowish sand-stone, which acquires a bluish cast where
the sea washes it. It runs, at some places, in horizontal, and, at
other-places, in oblique strata, being frequently divided, at small
distances, by thin veins of coarse quartz, which commonly follow the
direction of the other, though they sometimes intersect it. The mould,
or soil, which covers this, is also of a yellowish cast, not unlike
marl; and is commonly from a foot to two, or more, in thickness.
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