1777* THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 185 



examination. The longitude was determined by a 

 great number of lunar observations which we had 

 before we made the land, while we were in sight of 

 it, and after we had left it; and reduced to Adven- 

 ture Bay, and the several principal points, by the 

 time-keeper. The following Table will exhibit both 

 the longitude and latitude at one view: 



Adventure Bay, 

 Tasman's Head, 

 South Cape, - 

 South-west Cape, - 

 Swilly Isle, - - - 



a i } Variation of the compass 5 i5' east. 



x> r^Dip of the south-end of the needle 

 lure Bay, f V ^ ^ 



We had high-water on the 29th, being two days 

 before the last quarter of the moon, at nine in the 

 morning. The perpendicular rise then was eighteen 

 inches; and there was no appearance of its having 

 ever exceeded two feet and a half. These are all 

 the memorials useful to navigation, which my short 

 stay has enabled me to preserve, with respect to Van 

 Diemen's Land. 



Mr. Anderson, my surgeon, with his usual dili- 

 gence, spent the few days we remained in Adventure 

 Bay, in examining the country. His account of its 

 natural productions, with which he favoured me, 

 will more than compensate for my silence about 

 them: some of his remarks on the inhabitants will 

 supply what I may have omitted or represented im- 

 perfectly; and his specimen of their language, how- 

 ever short, will be thought worth attending to, by 

 those who wish to collect materials for tracing the 

 origin of nations. I shall only premise, that the tall 

 straight forest trees which Mr. Anderson describes 



