During our stay of twelve weeks at Port Jackson, there were not many days favourable to our pursuits at the observatory, the weather being dull and rainy for the greater part of the time; by watching all opportunities however, a sufficient number of observations were obtained to show the rates of the time keepers, and to answer the purposes of geography and navigation.

The Latitude of Cattle Point, from thirty meridian altitudes in an artificial horizon, of which fourteen were taken by Mr. Crosley and seven by me in 1795, and nine by lieutenant Flinders at this time, is 33 deg. 51’ 45.6” S.

Longitude from forty-four sets of distances of the sun and moon, of which the individual results are given in Table VI of the Appendix to this volume, 151 deg. 11’ 49” E.*

[* In 1795 and 1796 I took sixty sets of distances upon Cattle Point, an equal number on each side, which gave the longitude 151 deg. 17’ 12”; but these observations not having been calculated with great nicety, nor corrected for the errors of the lunar and solar tables, the result is not considered to be of equal authority with that given above.  The present admiral D’ESPINOSA, when an officer in the voyage of Malaspina, observed an eclipse of the sun at Port Jackson, and occultations of the first and second satellites of Jupiter, from which he deduces the longitude of the town of Sydney to be 151 deg. 12’ 45” east of Greenwich; not differing more than a minute of longitude from the above forty-four sets of corrected lunar observations.]

This position of Cattle Point, being reduced to the entrance of Port Jackson, will be for the Flag staff on the south head, latitude 33 deg. 511/2’ south, longitude 151 deg. 161/2 east.

Ramsden’s universal theodolite was set up at the observatory, and intended to be used as a transit instrument; but from the unfavourable state of the weather and my numerous occupations, it was not adjusted to the meridian; and the rates of the time keepers were therefore deduced from equal altitudes, taken with a sextant and artificial horizon in the usual way.  Their errors from mean Greenwich time, at noon there July 18, and the mean rates of going in the last fifteen days, which were selected as the best, were as under: 

Earnshaw’s No. 543, slow Oh 16’ 39.72” and losing 8.63” per day.  Earnshaw’s No. 520, slow 1 18 53.00 and losing 19.52 per day.

The longitude of Cattle Point, given by the time keepers with the Kangaroo-Island rates on May 10th, the first day of observation after our arrival, was by

No. 543 151 deg. 31’ 21” east
No. 520 151 26 49 east.

The mean is 17’ 16” more than deduced from the lunar observations; and when rates are used equally accelerating from those at Kangaroo Island, to what were found on first arriving at Port Jackson, the longitude by the time keepers would still be 14’ 57.4” to the east; so that they appear to have gone less regularly during this passage than before.  In fixing the longitudes of places between the two stations, the time keepers with their accelerated rates have been used; and the error of 14’ 57.4” has been corrected by quantities proportionate to the times of observation, between April 6 at Kangaroo Island, and May 9 at Port Jackson.