fire places, this animal seemed to form the principal
subsistence of the natives; but we had not the address to obtain any.
Hump-backed whales frequent the entrance of the sound, and would present
an object of interest to a colony. In fishing, we had little success with
hook and line; and the nature of the shores did not admit of hauling the
seine.

The climate here, being one degree within the tropic, was warm at this
season, which may be considered as the spring and the driest time of the
year. On board the ship, the height of the thermometer did not exceed
76 deg., with the warm winds from the northward, but at the tents it averaged
at noon somewhat above 90 deg.; and the musketoes and sand flies were very
troublesome at all places near the mangroves. We did not see any snakes
or other venemous reptiles or insects.

The _latitude_ of Upper Head, from six meridian observations in the
artificial horizon, is 22 deg. 23' 24" S.

_Longitude_ from fifty sets of distances of the sun and moon, given in
Table II of the second Appendix to this Volume, 149 deg. 46' 53" E.

The errors of the time keepers from mean Greenwich time, at noon there
Sept. 26, and their mean rates of going during seven days, of which four
were before and three after they had been let down the second time, were
as under:

Earnshaw's No. 543 slow 2h 3' 37.23" and losing 9.62" per day.
Earnshaw's No. 520 slow 3h 29' 15.57" and losing 21.41" per day.

These errors and rates were found by lieutenant Flinders, from equal
altitudes taken with a sextant on a stand, and using an artificial
horizon of quicksilver.

The longitudes given by the time keepers on Sept. 12 a.m. at Upper Head,
with the Port-Jackson rates, were these:

No. 543, 149 deg. 54' 27" east.
No. 520, 149 deg. 53' 47.5" east.

The mean is 7' 14" to the east of the lunars; but on using rates equally
accelerated from those at Port Jackson to the above at Upper Head, and
commencing the acceleration on Aug. 15, at Keppel Bay, where the time
keepers were found to be keeping their former rates, the mean longitude
will be 149 deg. 48' 56.6", or 2' 3.6" from the lunar observations; which is
therefore the presumable sum of their irregularities after August 15, or
in 27.7 days.

In fixing the positions of places along the East Coast, I have made use
of the time keepers from Port Jackson to Port Curtis, without any
correction. From Port Curtis to Broad Sound, the coast and islands are