Fresh water was scarce at this time, none being any where discovered near the sea side, except a small rill at the back of Upper Head, little more than adequate to the supply of the tents; it can however be scarcely doubted, that fresh water for domestic purposes would be found in most parts of the country; and there is a season of the year, most probably the height of summer, when rain falls abundantly, as was demonstrated by the torrent-worn marks down the sides of the hills.

Not a single native was seen, either on the shores of Thirsty, or Broad Sounds, during the whole time of our stay.

There are kangaroos in the woods, but not in numbers.  The shoals all over the sound are frequented by flocks of ducks and curlews; and we saw in the upper part, some pelicans, an individual of a large kind of crane, and another of a white bird, in form resembling a curlew.  Many turtle were seen in the water about Long Island, and from the bones scattered around the deserted fire places, this animal seemed to form the principal subsistence of the natives; but we had not the address to obtain any.  Hump-backed whales frequent the entrance of the sound, and would present an object of interest to a colony.  In fishing, we had little success with hook and line; and the nature of the shores did not admit of hauling the seine.

The climate here, being one degree within the tropic, was warm at this season, which may be considered as the spring and the driest time of the year.  On board the ship, the height of the thermometer did not exceed 76 deg., with the warm winds from the northward, but at the tents it averaged at noon somewhat above 90 deg.; and the musketoes and sand flies were very troublesome at all places near the mangroves.  We did not see any snakes or other venemous reptiles or insects.

The latitude of Upper Head, from six meridian observations in the artificial horizon, is 22 deg. 23’ 24” S.

Longitude from fifty sets of distances of the sun and moon, given in Table II of the second Appendix to this Volume, 149 deg. 46’ 53” E.

The errors of the time keepers from mean Greenwich time, at noon there Sept. 26, and their mean rates of going during seven days, of which four were before and three after they had been let down the second time, were as under: 

Earnshaw’s No. 543 slow 2h 3’ 37.23” and losing 9.62” per day.  Earnshaw’s No. 520 slow 3h 29’ 15.57” and losing 21.41” per day.

These errors and rates were found by lieutenant Flinders, from equal altitudes taken with a sextant on a stand, and using an artificial horizon of quicksilver.

The longitudes given by the time keepers on Sept. 12 a.m. at Upper Head, with the Port-Jackson rates, were these: 

No. 543, 149 deg. 54’ 27” east. 
No. 520, 149 deg. 53’ 47.5” east.

The mean is 7’ 14” to the east of the lunars; but on using rates equally accelerated from those at Port Jackson to the above at Upper Head, and commencing the acceleration on Aug. 15, at Keppel Bay, where the time keepers were found to be keeping their former rates, the mean longitude will be 149 deg. 48’ 56.6”, or 2’ 3.6” from the lunar observations; which is therefore the presumable sum of their irregularities after August 15, or in 27.7 days.