No. 543, with the small accelerating correction
arising from the 0.19" increase of rate in 16.4 days.

_Variation_ of the theodolite, observed on the east side of South-west
Island, 2 deg. 22' east.

In the bearings taken at different parts within the group, the variation
seemed to differ from 2 deg. 30' to l deg. 30'. The largest variations were on
the east sides of the islands, and the smallest on the west sides;
seeming to show an attraction of the land upon the south end of the
needle. On board the ship, when coasting along the east side of
Vanderlin's Island, and the whole group lay to the west, the variation
appeared from the bearings to be as much as 4 deg. east.

The best observation made on the _tide_, was on the 23rd, during my boat
excursion to the south end of Vanderlin's Island. On that morning the
moon passed over the meridian at sixteen minutes past ten, and the
perpendicular movements of the tide were as follows. At seven o'clock,
when I left the shore, the tide was falling; on landing at nine it was
stationary, and appeared to be low water; at noon it rose fast, and at
three was still rising, and continued so to do, but slowly, until seven
in the evening, The tide then began to fall; but after subsiding one
foot, it rose again until ten o'clock, and had then attained its greatest
height. Low water took place therefore about an hour before, and high
water at _eleven hours and a quarter after_ the moon passed the meridian:
the rise appeared to be from four to seven feet. At Wellesley's Islands
high water had taken place an hour and a half earlier, which seems
extraordinary, if, as it necessarily must, the flood come from the
northward. I think it very probable, that the tide in both places will
follow what was observed in King George's Sound on the South Coast; where
high water, after becoming gradually later till midnight, happened on the
following day before seven in the evening, and then later as before.

The break of three hours in the tide here, is somewhat remarkable: it was
not observed amongst Wellesley's Islands, where the tide ran twelve hours
each way; but was found to increase as we proceeded west and northward
until it became six hours, and the tides assumed the usual course.

CHAPTER VIII.

Departure from Sir Edward Pellew's Group.
Coast from thence westward.
Cape Maria found to be an island.
Limmen's Bight. Coast northward to Cape Barrow: landing on it.
Circumnavigation of Groote Eyl