A Voyage to Terra Australis — Volume 2: Undertaken for the purpose of completing the discovery of that vast country, and prosecuted in the years 1801, 1802 and 1803, in His Majesty's ship the Investigator, and subsequently in the armed vessel Porpoise and Cumberland schoonerFlinders, Matthew
History
A Voyage to Terra Australis — Volume 2: Undertaken for the purpose of completing the discovery of that vast country, and prosecuted in the years 1801, 1802 and 1803, in His Majesty's ship the Investigator, and subsequently in the armed vessel Porpoise and Cumberland schooner
Flinders, Matthew
Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Voyages and travels
Whether the small variation near the north-east isles arose from any
peculiar attraction, or from some oversight in taking the amplitude, I
cannot determine; if from the latter, it would appear that the variation
is a degree and a half less on the south-west, than on the east and north
sides of Groote Eylandt.
Scarcely any run of _tide_ was perceptible in North-west Bay, nor did the
rise appear to exceed four or five feet at any part of the island, though
it runs with some strength off the projecting points. The irregularity in
different places was such, that the time of high water could not be
ascertained; but I think there is only one full tide in the day, and that
the flood comes from the northward.
MONDAY 17 JANUARY 1803
Early on the 17th we worked out of the bay, and stretched off to sea with
a W. N. W. wind; at noon the latitude was 13° 27' 10", and the furthest
extreme of Chasm Island bore S. 26° W. After a calm in the afternoon, the
sea breeze came in, and we steered south-westward till nine o'clock; when
a bower anchor was let go in 14 fathoms, two or three miles from the
north end of Winchilsea Island. In the morning [TUESDAY 18 JANUARY 1803]
we lay up south-west, on the starbord tack, and weathered the island,
leaving a rock one mile and a half on the other side. I wished, by a good
bearing of Connexion Island, to join the survey completely round Groote
Eylandt; and at nine o'clock it was set at S. 27½° to 47° W., two
leagues. The wind then came ahead, and we tacked towards two small isles,
where the anchor was dropped at ten, one mile and a half from their south
side, in 16 fathoms, sand and shells. Our latitude here was 13° 43' 42"
south, and the east side of Connexion Island bore S. 9½° W. six or seven
miles; the difference of longitude from our situation on the 5th at three
p.m., was hence ascertained to be it 1' 55" east, not differing 5" from
what was given by No. 543, but No. 520 showed 6½' too much; the
differences of longitude by the former time keeper alone have therefore
been used round Groote Eylandt.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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