134 APPENDIX. 



nel, just taking the ship clear of head-lands, the 

 opposite one up Channel would run the ship on the 

 French coast. 



" In order to render the result of my observa- 

 tions on this subject as clear as possible, I have 

 selected a few, and inserted them in the order they 

 were taken. The correctness of them may be re- 

 lied on, being all calculated by two persons, exa- 

 mined by a third, and the whole taken by myself. 



" I boarded a good many Greenland ships when 

 in the North, whose masters all agreed in main- 

 taining, that they experienced strong south-east 

 currents on their return home, and were often 

 confounded at making the coast of Norway when 

 they expected to make that of Shetland. Now, 

 I have no hesitation in saying, that if the same 

 difference in the variation is to be found on board 

 of a Greenland ship, that was found to exist in 

 the Sybyll and Princess Carolina, the idea of a 

 strong easterly current is unfounded, and is mere- 

 ly resorted to, to account for the error in their 

 dead reckoning, arising from their not allowing a 

 sufficiency of westerly variation in running from 

 the ice to the south-west. A degree of longitude 

 is soon lost in those high latitudes, and the error 

 must increase in running to the south-west, if pro- 

 per allowance be not made ; for I am very cer~ 



