302 DISCOVERIES OF 3 7^9 to 



how to take an observation for the latitude ; and 

 yet, during his long and interesting journey of 

 twelve or thirteen hundred miles and as many 

 back again, he takes but one solitary observation 

 to ascertain the latitude ; which is the more un- 

 accountable as, by a remark of his own, he seldom 

 could have wanted opportunities to determine this 

 inost essential point, without which the true geo- 

 graphy of this part of the continent may still be said 

 to remain in doubt. His remark is, that '^ in those 

 high latitudes, and at this season of the year, the 

 sun is always at a good height above the horizon, 

 so that he had not only day-light but siinshine the 

 whole night." Still, however, he tells us that the 

 latitude of the mouth of the river may be de- 

 pended on, though he does not mention in the 

 text what that latitude was ; it is to be collected 

 only from the chart, in which it would appear to 

 be about 73° 30'. Now comparing his journey 

 after leaving Congecathawhachaga, where his 

 single observation was made and which gave him 

 68° 46', and calculating by the courses and dis- 

 tances the diiference of latitude between that 

 place and the mouth of the river, that difference 

 would not appear to exceed three degrees ; so that 

 the latitude, which Mr. Heame says " may be 

 depended on," and which on the chart is 73° 30', 

 ought rather to be taken at 71° 46'. Doctor 

 Douglas, into whose hands the manuscript journal 

 was placed long before its publication, states the 



