ude, is greater than
should exist in the mean result of six sets of distances. There is an
interval of three days in the observations of the moon at Greenwich with
which these distances were compared; and it seems probable that a great
part of the error might arise from that cause.]

WEDNESDAY 12 JANUARY 1803

In the morning we steered close to a N. N. W. wind, for the low sandy
point, where the shore was found to trend southward; and five or six
miles to the west there was other land, moderately high and in some
places cliffy, which took nearly a parallel direction; and the bight
between them ran so far up towards the north-east bluff of the woody
hills, that a junction with the small opening seen on the outside
appeared to be probable. A shelving spit extended out from the low point,
and on opening the bight our soundings decreased from 6 to 21/2 fathoms,
which made it necessary to tack; and the wind being adverse to passing
within the north-east islands, if indeed there be water enough for a
ship, which seemed doubtful, we steered out by the way we had come in.

Having little wind, the isles were not passed till late in the evening,
and from the same cause not much progress was made to the westward next
day [THURSDAY 13 JANUARY 1803]; but the land was better distinguished
than before, and many straggling rocks and two islets were seen to lie
off the north end of Groote Eylandt. In the morning of the 14th [FRIDAY
14 JANUARY 1803] we weathered all these, and on the wind dying away,
anchored in 111/2 fathoms, blue mud; the outer _North-point Islet_, which
lies in 13 deg. 37' south and 136 deg. 45' east, then bore E. 3 deg. S. five miles,
and the furthest extreme of a higher cliffy island, S. 38 deg. W. three
miles.

I went in a boat to this last island with the botanical gentlemen,
intending to take bearings from the uppermost cliffs; but the many deep
chasms by which the upper parts are intersected, made it impossible to
reach the top in the short time we had to spare, and a few bearings from
the eastern low point were all that could be obtained. This was called
_Chasm Island_; it lies one mile and a half from a low point of Groote
Eylandt, where the shore trends southward and seemed to form a bay, into
which I proposed to conduct the ship.

We found upon Chasm Island a fruit which proved to be a new species of
_eugenia_, of the size of an apple, whose acidity of taste was agreeable;
there were also many large bus