THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
Chrifimas IJland . I judge it to be about fifteen or twenty 
leagues in circumference. It feemed to be of a femicir- 
cular form; or like tbe moon in the laft quarter, the two 
horns being the North and South points; which bear from 
each other nearly North by Eaft, and South by Weft, four 
or five leagues diftant. This Weft fide, or the little ifle at 
the entrance into the lagoon , upon which we obferved the 
eclipfe, lies in the latitude of i° 59 ' North, and in the lon¬ 
gitude of 202 0 3o / Eaft, determined by a confiderable num¬ 
ber of lunar obfervations, which differed only 7 7 from the 
time-keeper; it being fo much lefs. The variation of the 
compafs was 6° 22T Eaft; and the dip of the North end of 
the needle n° 54'. 
Chriftmas Ifland, like moft others in this ocean, is bound¬ 
ed by a reef of coral rocks, which extends but a little way 
from the fliore. Farther out than this reef, on the Weft 
fide, is a bank of fine fand, extending a mile into the fea. 
On this bank is good anchorage, in any depth between 
eighteen and thirty fathoms. In lefs than the firft-men- 
tioned depth, the reef would be too near; and in more than 
the laft, the edge of the bank would not be at a fufficient 
diftance. During the time we lay here, the wind blew, 
conftantly, a frefh gale at Eaft, or Eaft by South, except 
one or two days. We had, always, a great fwell from the 
Northward, which broke upon the reef, in a prodigious jfarf. 
We had found this fwell before we came to the ifland; and 
it continued for fome days after we left it. 
189 
1778. 
January. 
wm —< 
C H A P. 
