“I boarded a good many Greenland ships when in the North, whose masters all agreed in maintaining, that they experienced _strong south-east currents_ on their return home, and were often confounded at making the coast of Norway when they expected to make that of Shetland. Now, I have no hesitation in saying, that if the same difference in the variation is to be found on board of a Greenland ship, that was found to exist in the Sybyll and Princess Carolina, the idea of a strong easterly current is unfounded, and is merely resorted to, to account for the error in their dead reckoning, arising from their not allowing a sufficiency of westerly variation in running from the ice to the south-west. A degree of longitude is soon lost in those high latitudes, and the error must increase in running to the south-west, if proper allowance be not made; for I am very certain that a different variation will be found on every point of the compass the ship’s head is put on. The greatest will be found when the _ship’s head is at West_, gradually declining till it comes to East. “The Princess Carolina, as well as Sybyll, experienced _the same currents_ as the masters of the Greenland ships supposed to exist; for when we made Shetland, by Arnold’s chronometer, No. 1981, to a mile, our dead reckonings were nearly 6° _to the westward in both ships_; and when we made the North Cape by the same chronometer, (which was under my own care,) the longitude in both ships, by account, was 4° to the westward also. The one error was occasioned by not allowing a sufficient quantity of variation in running to the south-west, and the other by allowing too much in running to the north-east. “I do not know whether the same observations may hold good when applied to ships coming from the Baltic; but should they do so, they must effectually account for ships getting down on the coast of Holland, when they suppose themselves well over in Mid-channel. Perhaps this may, in some measure, serve to account for the loss of so many of our brave tars when coming from that sea. “Notwithstanding the whole tenor of my observations, as well as those of Captain Flinders, led me to believe that the cause of the variation must exist in the ship; yet I had great difficulty in coming to a conclusion so remote from what had formerly been held to be truth; and for that reason, during our stay at St. Mary’s, I took the opportunity of making a decisive experiment on this subject. I first went with the Azimuth compass to St. Agnes’s lighthouse, from which I set the flag-staff on St. Mary’s Castle, E. 31° N. I next went to St. Mary’s castle, and from it set the lighthouse W. 31° S. Finding these opposite bearings thus correspond when on shore, I am fully persuaded the cause of the differences observed when at sea, must exist in the ship.” After making these remarks on the variation of the compass, he next goes on to make some observations, as they occurred in the voyage.