52 
A VOYAGE TO 
[East Coast. 
1802. 
September. 
showed it to be g* o'. The variation on 
shore, on the west side of the bay, may 
therefore be taken at - g° 24' east. 
Upon Mount Westall on the east side, and 
at the south end of Leicester Island, it 
was from the bearings - - 8 50 
Upon the small islet at the head of the bay, 9 25 
At our anchorage on the west side of the bay, Mr. Flinders 
took azimuths when the ship’s head was S. E. by E., which gave 
6° 31' by one compass ; before he had done, the ship swung to the 
flood tide with her head W. N. W., and two other compasses then 
gave 11 0 27' and 11*4,': the mean corrected to the meridian, will be 
8° 4 6' east. 
At an anchorage towards the east side of the bay, the same 
officer observed the variation with two compasses, when the head 
was east, to be 4° 49', or corrected, 7 0 21' east. 
The difference in Strong-tide Passage, where the land was one 
mile to the south-south-east on one side, and the same to the west 
on the other, was still more remarkable; for when the head was 
N. E. by N., an amplitude gave me g° io', or corrected, to 0 34' east. 
There might have been an error in any of the ship observa- 
tions of half a degree ; but I am persuaded that the attraction of the 
land, sometimes to the east and sometimes west, as the ship was 
near one or the other side of the bay, was the great cause of the 
difference in the corrected results ; and it will presently be seen, that 
the effect on a neighbouring part of the coast was much more con- 
siderable. 
