1820 —— July 28. the preceding years are inserted in the Appendix, it will be sufficient here merely to record the position of the observatory; it was situated on the south shore opposite the low sandy north point; and was found to be in
Latitude
15° 27′ 4″.
Longitude
145° 10′ 49″.
Variation of the compass
5° 13¾′E.
Dip of the south end of the Needle
38°
High water at full and change
at eight o'clock.
29.On the 29th Mr. Bedwell went to Captain Cook's Turtle Reef, but he was unsuccessful in his search for that animal; neither did he find any shells different from what we had previously seen; only a few clams (chama gigaa) were brought away, besides a small fish of the shark tribe (squakus ocellatus, Linn.) At high water the reef was overflowed excepting at its northwest end, where a patch of sand not larger than the boat was left dry. At low tide the key, or the ridge of rocks heaped up round the edge of the reef, was left dry, and formed a barricade for the interior, which is occupied by a shallow lake of circular shape, in which many small fish and some sharks were seen swimming about. It was from this reef that Captain Cook, during the repair of his ship, procured turtle for her crew; and,
