A VOYAGE TO 
[South Coast. 
Port Lincoln is certainly a fine harbour ; and it is much to be 
regretted that it possesses no constant run of fresh water, unless it 
should be in Spalding Cove, which we did not examine. Our pits 
at the head of the port will however, supply ships at all times ; and 
though discoloured by whitish clay, the water has no pernicious 
quality, nor is it ill tasted. This and wood, which was easily pro- 
cured, were all that we found of use to ships ; and for the estab- 
lishment of a colony, which the excellence of the port might seem 
to invite, the little fertility of the soil offers no inducement. The 
wood consists principally of the eucalyptus and casuarina. 
Of the climate we had no reason to speak but in praise ; 
nor were we incommoded by noxious insects. The range of the 
thermometer on board the ship was from 66" to 78 0 , and that of the 
barometer from 29,94 to 30,20 inches. The weather was generally 
clouded, the winds light, coming from the eastward in the mornings, 
and southward after noon. On shore, the average height of the 
thermometer at noon was 76°. 
The latitude of our tents at the heat of Port Lin- 
coln, from the mean of four meridian obser- 
vations of the sun taken from an artificial 
horizon, was - 34° 4,8' 25" S. 
The longitude, from thirty sets of distances of 
the sun and stars from the moon ( see Table 
IV. of the Appendix to this volume), was 135 4,4 51 E. 
These observations, being reduced to Cape Donington at the en- 
trance of the port, will place it in 
Latitude - 34° 44' south. 
Longitude 135 56^ east. 
No corresponding, observation of the solar eclipse appears to 
have been made under any known meridian, and from the nature of 
circumstances, the error of the moon's place could not be observed 
at Greenwich ; the distances would therefore seem most worthy of 
confidence, and are adopted ; but the longitude deduced from the 
