500 EAST COAST OF TASMANIA. 



On the SSrd, we passed along the east coast of 

 Tasmania, at the distance of eight miles. The 

 weather being fine and the water smooth, we had 

 frequent opportunities of testing the accuracy of 

 the present chart, which we found to be about 

 three miles in error both in latitude and longitude ; 

 the latter with respect to the meridian of Fort 

 Mulgrave.* 



master of her states, that he sounded on it in seven fathoms, and 

 saw moored kelp occupying the space of about half a mile. As 

 this vessel's latitude,, by her run from Banks Strait, vras twenty 

 miles further south, we cannot place much confidence in this re- 

 port, in which it is stated, that when Cape Barren bore W. 

 eight miles, they steered N.E. for sixty miles, when finding them- 

 selves, near noon, close to broken water, they wore the vessel's 

 head round to the southward, and sounded in seven fathoms in 

 kelp; the latitude by observation being 39" 31' S. As it was 

 blowing strong at the time from the N.W. with a high sea, and 

 as there was only one cast of the lead taken, in the confusion of 

 wearing, it is possible they might have been deceived. The kelp 

 might have been adrift, and the sea, in that neighbourhood, 

 often breaks irregularly as if on foul ground. The position of 

 this supposed shoal, by the run from Banks Strait would be, 

 latitude 39" 51' S., longitude 149" 40' E. ; but as this gives a 

 difference of twenty miles in the latitude by observation, and as 

 the Beagle has crossed those parallels ten times between the 

 the meridians of 148° 4' and ISO" 13', and, moreover, as the 

 position assigned this shoal lies so much in the track of vessels 

 running between Hobarton and Sydney, there is every reason to 

 doubt its existence. 



* Strange to say, the position assigned this place in the chart, 

 147" 28' E. is much in error with regard to longitude, as 

 Fort Mulgrave is 3" .52' 35" W. of Sydney, or 147" 23' 25" E. ; 



