al, 133 deg. 29' east. There was
no set of _tide_ past the ship; but from eight o'clock to noon the water
had risen about a foot by the shore.

The anchor was weighed on the return of the botanists, and we steered
westward past the small island named Lound's, and as far as Purdie's
Isles. when, having seen the whole line of the coast behind them, we
hauled to the southward at six o'clock for Petrel Bay; and at one in the
morning [MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 1802] came to, in 13 fathoms, near our former
anchorage.

It was here confirmed by satisfactory observations on shore that our
former latitudes and longitudes taken on board the ship were erroneous;
and the consequent necessity of reconstructing my chart of these islands
induced me to remain at anchor the rest of the day. A boat was sent to
fish with hook and line, and had some success; and at dusk a sufficient
number of sooty petrels were taken from the burrows to give nine to every
man, making, with those before caught, more than twelve hundred birds.
These were inferior to the teal shot at the western Isle of St. Peter,
and by most persons would not be thought eatable on account of their
fishy taste, but they made a very acceptable supply to men who had been
many months confined to an allowance of salt meat.

The _latitude_ of our anchorage in Petrel Bay proved to be 32 deg. 33 1/3'
south, and corrected _longitude_, by time-keepers, 133 deg. 151/2' east. The
_variation_ of the compass on the binnacle, with the ship's head
south-eastwardly, but the exact point not noted, was 2 deg. 23' west. Other
azimuths, taken five leagues to the north-westward, with the head
south-half-west, gave 0 deg. 19' east; and six leagues to the eastward, the
head being north half-west, we had 0 deg. 16' east. All these observations,
being corrected, and supposing the ship's head in the first case to have
been south-east-half-east, as is probable, would agree in showing that
the true and magnetic meridians exactly coincided at the Isles of St.
Francis in 1802.

Being about to quit this archipelago, it may be expected that I should
make some general remarks upon it. The basis stone of the islands where
we landed, and that of the others, as also of the projecting parts of the
main, appeared to be similar, was either porphyry or granite; but this
was generally covered with a _stratum_, more or less thick, of calcareous
rock. The and sterility of the two largest islands has been already
mentioned;