At the highest top of Pier Head, Var. 3° 25' E. Dip 53° 20' S. West, three yards from it, 6 10 S. E. three yards, 10 5 S. S. E., ten yards, 8 6 52 19 North, four, 6 55 N. E., twenty, 6 50 50 35 N. N. E., one-sixth mile, at the water side, 7 6 50 28 S. E., one-third mile, at ditto, 8 2 50 50 There are here no differences equal to those found by captain Cook; but it is to be observed, that he used a ship's azimuth compass, probably not raised further from the ground than to be placed on a stone, whereas my theodolite stood upon legs, more than four feet high. The dipping needle was raised about two feet; and by its greater inclination at the top of the hill, shows the principal attraction to have been not far from thence. The least dip, 50° 28', taken at the shore on the north side of the head, was doubtless the least affected; but it appears to have been half a degree too much, for at Port Bowen, twenty-two miles further south, it was no more than 50° 20'. An amplitude taken on board the ship in the Sound by lieutenant Flinders, when the head was S. S. W., gave variation 8° 39', or corrected to the meridian, 7° 40' east. As Pier Head lay almost exactly in the meridian, from the ship, its magnetism would not alter the direction of the needle; and I therefore consider 7° 40' to be very nearly the true variation, when unaffected by local causes: in Port Bowen, it varied from 7° 40' to 8° 30' east. Notwithstanding this very sensible effect upon the needle, both horizontally and vertically, I did not find, any more than captain Cook, that a piece of the stone applied to the theodolite drew the needle at all out of its direction; nevertheless I am induced to think, that the attraction was rather dispersed throughout the mass of stone composing Pier Head, than that any mine of iron ore exists in it. The stone is a porphyry of a dark, blueish colour. MONDAY 6 SEPTEMBER 1802 On the 6th, at noon, when the observations were finished and I had proposed to quit Thirsty Sound, the wind and tide were both against us. To employ the rest of the day usefully, I went over in the whale boat, accompanied by the landscape painter, to the 6th, 7th, and 8th Northumberland Islands, which, with many low islets and rocks near them, form a cluster three or four leagues to the north-east of the Sound. Orders were left with lieutenant Fowler to get the ship under way as early as possible on the following morning, and come out to meet us.