Spencer's Gulph.] TERRA AUSTRALIS. 165 
land distant thirteen miles, an amplitude gave 3 0 15' east. These 1802. 
different observations, which were all taken with the surveying fttday C ]9. 
compass, being corrected upon the principles and by the proportion 
explained in the Appendix No. II. to the second volume, will be 
respectively, 2 0 51', 4 0 21' furthest from the land, 2 0 58', i° 41' 
nearest the land, and 2 s 1' east. The mean is 2 0 46' east ; which 
may be taken for the true variation at three or four leagues off 
Point Pearce in 1802 ; but close in with the shore, I suspect it was 
less by 1°, or perhaps 2 0 . 
Having remained at anchor until the sun was high enough 
to admit of observations for the time keepers, we got under way 
at half past seven o'clock ; and the coast round Corny Point being 
found to trend S. 27 0 W., nearly in the wind's eye, I stretched west- 
ward across the gulph towards Thistle's Island, in order to compare 
the time keepers with the longitudes of places before settled. Our 
latitude at noon, observed on both sides, was 34 0 50' 10"; Spilsby 
Island, the south-easternmost of Sir Joseph Banks' Group, was seen 
bearing N. 56° W., and the eastern bluff of Wedge Island, the central 
and largest of Gambier's Isles, bore S. i6i°W. Gambier's Isles, 
four in number besides two peaked rocks, had been first seen from 
the high land behind Memory Cove. They lie nearly in the centre 
of the entrance to the gulph ; and the latitude of Wedge Island is 
35 0 11' south, and longitude 136 0 29' east. Soon after four in the 
afternoon, I had the following bearings : 
Wedge Island, highest part, S. 21^° E. 
Thistle's Island, highest part, - - S. 29 W. 
C. Catastrophe, former station on the S. E. point, S. 53^ W. 
Stamford Hill, former station at the top, - N. 86 W. 
Sibsey Island, centre, - - - N. 33 W. 
Stickney Island, - - - - N. 11 W. 
Spilsby Island, - - - N. 17} E. 
The longitude deduced from these bearings was 30' 22" east, from 
the head of Port Lincoln, and that resulting from observations for 
vol. 1. 3 B 
