i 

 OF LA PERQUSE. l8l 



quantity was caught when eail and fouth-eaft 

 winds brought the flm into the bay. 



Van Diemen's Land was difcovered by Taf- 

 inan in the month of November 1642. When 

 Captain Cook anchored here in 1777, ^ our }' ears 

 after Furneaux, he thought that he was the 

 third of the European navigators who had 

 landed on this coaft. Cook was then ignorant 

 -that Captain Marion, after having llaid there 

 fpme time, had left it on the 10th of March, in 

 the year 1772. The natives obferved a very 

 different conduct with re^ct to thefe two navi- 

 gators. Perhaps the mildnefs of difpofition 

 that they ihewed towards Cook, was the effect 

 of the idea that they had imbibed from our fire- 

 arms, which Marion was under the neceffity of 

 uling againft them. 



The flation of our obfervatory, which was 

 iituated on the ftarboard hand towards the en- 

 trance of the harbour, was in latitude 43 32' 

 24" fouth, and longitude 144 46' eaft. 



The variation of the compafs was y 39/ 32" 

 eaft. 



A flat needle gave for the dip 70 30'. 



The tides were felt only once a day. The 

 time of high water, on the days of the new and 

 full moon, was from nine to eleven o'clock, the 

 tea riling perpendicularly about two meters. 

 The winds had great influence on the tides, 

 n 3 which 



