Flinders
and Bass.
1798.
supplement was taken to the south, and gave the latitude 43° 27½′. A steep head which lies N. 79° E. four or five miles from the South-west Cape, then bore S. 74° W., three miles;[1] whence the latitude of the Cape should be 43° 29′, which is 10 less than given by captain Furneaux, and 8′ by captain Cook. This difference naturally excited some suspicion of an error in the observation, and I measured the supplement in the same manner on the following noon, when it gave 2′ 40″ less than the latitude determined by D'Entrecasteaux in Storm Bay. The South-west Cape is therefore placed 2′ 40″ further south than my observation gave it; that is, in latitude 43° 32′.[2] The longitude of the Cape, from the observations taken off Rocky Point and brought forward by the survey, would be 145° 47′; but its situation in 146° 7′, by captain Cook, appears to be preferable: D'Entrecasteaux places it in 146° 0′.
The nearest land, at noon, was a steep head bearing N. 66° E., one mile and a half; and between this, and the head which bore S. 74° W., the shore forms a sandy bay four miles deep, where it is probable there may be good anchorage, if two clumps of rock, which lie in the entrance, will admit of a passage in. After taking- ↑ This head opened round the Cape at E. 14° N., magnetic, the sloop's head being E. by N.; and shut at W. 20° S., when the head was north. In the first case I allow 3½° east variation, and in the last, 8°; which makes them agree as nearly as can be expected from bearings taken under sail.
- ↑ Captain Furneaux says (in Cook's second Voyage, Vol. 1. page 109), that on March 9, 1773, at noon, the South-west Cape bore north, four leagues; and by referring to the Astronomical Observations, p. 193, I find that his latitude was 43° 45⅔′, which would place the Cape in 43° 33⅔′; nevertheless the captain says it is in 43° 39′, and it is so laid down in his chart. The observation by which captain Cook appears to have fixed the South-west Cape, is that of Jan. 24, 1777, at noon; when he says, "our latitude was "48° 47′ south" (Third Voyage, Vol. 1. p. 93). But the Astronomical Observations of that voyage shew (p. 101), that the observed latitude on board the Resolution was 43° 42½′; which would make the Cape in 43° 32½′ south. I consulted captain King's journal at the Admiralty, but found no observed latitude marked by him on that day.
