elevation of sixty-eight feet, and the magnetic observatory nearer to the ships in a more protected situation and thirty-six feet above the level of the sea: two huts were erected close by it for the accommodation of the officers and men employed at the observatories, and our usual series of magnetometric and other observations were commenced on the 15th of April.
The astronomical observations and pendulum experiments, in which I was assisted by Captain Crozier, were begun soon afterwards, and a series of more than ordinary extent obtained, with the view to arrive at the cause of the great and inexplicable discordance between the results of the French navigators, Captain Freycinet and Captain Duperrey at this place.
Captain Duperrey fixed his observatory amidst the ruins of the settlement of Saint Louis; but as there did not appear to have been any mark left on the spot, we could not determine its position with the desirable exactness, and our subsequent observations prove that our observatory was about half a mile to the southward of the situation of his. He states in his Voyage autour du Monde, p. 98. that the difference in the latitude of his station and that of Captain Duperrey was 3′ 32″ and the longitude 3′ 43″, the latter station being on an island to the south-eastward, called by the French the "Isle de Conti," which is probably Hog Island of the Admiralty Chart.
The ships' companies were employed under Com-