the report I counted eighty-five vibrations of the pendulum, and the same with two succeeding guns; whence the length of the base was deduced to be 8.01 geographic miles.* A principal station in the survey of Port Lincoln was a hill on the north side called Northside Hill, which afforded a view extending to Sleaford Mere and Bay and as far as Cape Wiles on one side, and to the hills at the beak of Coffin’s Bay on the other.  A great part of the bearings taken from hence crossed those from Stamford Hill very advantageously.

[* This length was founded on the supposition, that sound travels at the rate of 1142 feet in a second of time, and that 6060 feet make a geographic mile.  A base of 15’ 24” of latitude was afterwards obtained from observations in an artificial horizon, and of 25’ 17” of longitude from the time keepers with new rates, both correct, as I believe, to a few seconds.  From this long base and theodolite bearings, the first base appeared to be somewhat too short; for they gave it 8.22 instead of 8.01 miles.  The length of the pendulum in the first measurement was such as to swing half seconds in England; and I had not thought it, in this case, worth attention, that by the laws of gravity and the oblate spheroid, the pendulum would not swing so quick in the latitude of 35 deg..  I must leave it to better mathematicians to determine from the data and the true length of a geographic mile in this latitude, whether the base ought to have been 8.22 as given by the observations and bearings:  it was proved to be sufficiently near for all the purposes of a common nautical survey.]

Amongst the various excursions made by the scientific gentlemen, one was directed to Sleaford Mere, of which they made the circuit.  The two southern branches were found to terminate within a hundred yards of the head of Sleaford Bay, with which the mere had been suspected to have a communication from its water being not quite fresh; but they are separated by a stony bank too high for the surf ever to pass over it.  At the head of the bay a boat’s sail and yard were seen floating, and no doubt had belonged to our unfortunate cutter:  after being set out to sea by the tide, it had been driven up there by the late south-east winds.

WEDNESDAY 3 MARCH 1802

The refitment of the ship being nearly completed on the 3rd of March, lieutenant Fowler was sent round to Memory Cove in a boat, to make a final search along the shores and round the islands in Thorny Passage for the bodies of our late shipmates, which the sea might have thrown up.  On the 4th [THURSDAY 4 MARCH 1802] the last turn of water was received, and completed our stock up to sixty tons; and the removal of our establishment from the shore waited only for the observation of a solar eclipse, announced in the nautical ephemeris for this day.  The morning was cloudy, with rain; but towards noon the weather