A species of _pandanus_ before found at Glass-house and Shoal Bays, grows in abundance upon Sandy Cape; and notwithstanding the extreme sterility of the soil, the sand hills were mostly covered with bushes, and the vallies contained trees of the _casuarina_ and _eucalyptus_. There was fresh water in a pool near the shore, and as a ship may lie within half a mile, both wood and water might be procured here without great difficulty; but I doubt if the water would not altogether fail in the dry season.
A tolerably regular tide set past the ship, N. N. E. and S. S. W., nearly one mile an hour; and it appeared by the shore to be high water _about eight hours after_ the moon's passage, and the common rise to be between six and seven feet.
No mention has been made of the variation of the compass since leaving Port Jackson, A gradual diminution seems to take place from Twofold Bay, near the southern extremity of this coast, to Sandy Cape; as will appear from the following observations.
Lat. 37° 4' Azim., one compass, on shore, 9° 29' E. 33 52 do , do , do , 8 51 31 36 do , do , head north, 9 8 30 32 do , three comp., do , 8 42 26 10 do , one comp., head N. by W. 8° 40', corr. 8 7 25 0 Ampl., do , head N. W. by N. 9 39 , corr. 8 9 24 43 do , do , head S. E. ½ S. 6 33 , corr 8 14
The coast lies nearly north, and except Sandy Cape, appears to be mostly of free stone, which I have not found to produce any effect upon the needle; and what is remarkable, on comparing my observations with those of captain Cook, it appeared that little or no change had taken place in the variation, during thirty-two years; for wherever our observations were taken with the ships heads in the same direction, there the same variation was obtained to a few minutes.
Within Break-sea Spit, an amplitude gave the variation when corrected, 7° 25' east; and one taken at the anchorage near Sandy Cape, but uncorrected, the direction of the ship's head being unknown, 7° 57' east. There is little doubt that on bringing the land to the eastward of the ship, the variation was diminished at least half a degree: the stone of Sandy Cape is granitic.
In the morning of August 1, the wind was from the southward, and we steered across Hervey's Bay, towards a sloping hummock on the west side, where my examination in the Norfolk had terminated. The soundings increased from 7, gradually to 18 fathoms, and afterwards decreased till half past four in the afternoon; when the sloping hummock bore S. 2° E. eight miles, and we had no more than 3½ fathoms near some dry banks and breakers, which extend out three miles from two shallow inlets in the coast. At dusk the anchor was let go in 6½ fathoms, mud and sand; the shallow inlets to the south being distant 6 miles, and the sloping hummock bearing S. 17° E. In captain Cook's chart, the width of Hervey's Bay is fifty-nine miles, which had appeared to me too great when here in the Norfolk; and I now made the distance, from the north-west extremity of Sandy Cape to a low point running out from the hummock, to be forty three miles by the _time keepers_. Such errors as this are almost unavoidable without the aid of these instruments, when sailing either along a coast which lies nearly on the same parallel, or where no land is in sight to correct the longitude by bearings. From Port Jackson to Sandy Cape, captain Cook's positions had been found to differ from mine, not more than from 10' east to 7' west; which must be considered a great degree of accuracy, considering the expeditious manner in which he sailed along the coast, and that there were no time keepers on board the Endeavour; but from Sandy Cape northward, where the direction of the coast has a good deal of westing in it, greater differences began to show themselves.