Scientific Observations. 2gcj 



left undisturbed sufficiently long to secure the desired object. 

 Occasionally cows would be landed from the whalers for the 

 sake of the fresh fodder, and taken away again after the lapse 

 of a month or two. 



The projected scientific operations of the Expedition might 

 easily have been carried out within eight days, had we not 

 been so obstinately persecuted with unfavourable weather. 

 Violent north winds, which rendered it impossible to make any 

 use of the surveying-board in the open air, alternated in an 

 extraordinary manner with rainbows. Our astronomical ob- 

 servations were as yet nothing to speak of. Observations with 

 the barometer, thermometer, current-measurer, and tide-ffaaare, 

 could alone be prosecuted, the last of which especially gave 

 the following interesting result, that the hour of high water, 

 both at full moon and new moon, is not 11 a.m., as given by 

 Horsburgh (7th edition, Vol. I. p. 102), but at 1.10 p.m.* 



The proper carrying- out of the objects of the geognostic en- 

 quiries was hampered by unforeseen obstacles and difficulties. 

 One day the rain would be so heavy, that the slight covering of 

 our apartments would be insufficient to protect us any longer 

 from the beating of the rain which fell in bucketsfull, and 

 began to leak through innumerable seams and cracks on to the 

 beds, tables, and floor. Did any one think to shelter himself 

 in the hut of a neighbour? — ere long there commenced a 



* According to Lord Macartney, the tide rises at full and new moon, between 

 8 and 9 feet perpendicular. A northerly wiud always causes the highest tide, the 

 current of which is from S.E. by S. to N.W. by N., and has a velocity of about 

 3 mUes an hour. 



