the breeze
having become light and the sea gone down, an anchor was dropped in 5
fathoms, sandy bottom; whence the top of West Hill bore N. 68 deg. W. three
miles. A flood tide was found running from the N. N. E., one mile and a
quarter per hour.

THURSDAY 9 SEPTEMBER 1802

In the morning I landed with the botanical gentlemen, and wished to
ascend the top of the hill; but the brush wood was too thick to be
penetrable. Upon a projecting head on the north-east side, I took a part,
and about half way up the hill on the south-east side, the remainder of a
set of bearings, which included many of the Northumberland Isles not
before seen, and other of the Flat Isles within Broad Sound. The furthest
visible part of the main land towards Cape Palmerston, was distant about
five leagues, and behind it was a hill to which, from its form, I gave
the name of _Mount Funnel_; the shore both to the north and south was
low, and the Flat Isles to the southward of the ship were mostly over-run
with mangroves. I did not go round West Hill, and could not see whether
it were connected with the main land, or not; but if joined, it must be
by a very low isthmus. The bearings at this station, most essential to
the connection of the survey, were these:

Main coast, the extremes, N. 1 deg. and S. 10 deg. 45'
E.
Pier Head, the top, S. 61 25
E.
Northumberland Isles, peak marked 'h', N. 61 45
E.
Northumberland Isles, high northmost marked 'i', dist. 11 L. N. 19 15
E.

The stone of the hill had in it specks of quartz or feldtspath, and was
not much unlike that of Pier Head; but it had a more basaltic appearance.
A piece of it applied to the theodolite, drew the needle two degrees out
of its direction, and yet the bearings did not show any great difference
from the true variation; for an amplitude taken on board the ship by Mr.
Flinders, when the head was N. N. E, gave 6 deg. 18', or corrected to the
meridian, 7 deg. 17' east, and the variation on the eastern side of the hill
was 8 deg. 15', according to the back bearing of Pier Head.

From an observation of the sun's upper and lower limbs in an artificial
horizon, the latitude was 21 deg. 50' 18", and the ship bore from thence S.
68 deg. E. two miles and a half; the latitude of the ship should therefore
have been 21 deg. 51' 14"; but a meridian altitude observed to the north by
lieutenant Flinders, g