Supposing The Longitude Of The Observatory To Be As Above, The Error Of Mr
Kendal's Watch, In Longitude, Will Be 1 Deg.
48' minus, and that of Mr Arnold's
39 deg.
25'. The former was found to be gaining 6",461 a-day on mean time, and
the latter losing 99",361. Agreeably to these rates the longitude by them
was to be determined, until an opportunity of trying them again.
I must observe, that in finding the longitude by Mr Kendal's watch, we
suppose it to have gone mean time from the Cape of Good Hope. Had its cape
rate been allowed, the error would not have been so great.
SECTION VI.
Passage from Dusky Bay to Queen Charlottes Sound, with an Account of
some Water Spouts, and of our joining the Adventure.
After leaving Dusky Bay, as hath been already mentioned, I directed my
course along shore for Queen Charlotte's Sound, where I expected to find
the Adventure. In this passage we met with nothing remarkable, or worthy of
notice, till the 17th at four o'clock in the afternoon. Being then about
three leagues to the westward of Cape Stephens; having a gentle gale at
west by south, and clear weather, the wind at once flattened to a calm, the
sky became suddenly obscured by dark dense clouds, and seemed to forebode
much wind. This occasioned as to clew up all our sails, and presently after
six water-spouts were seen. Four rose and spent themselves between us and
the land; that is, to the south-west of us, the fifth was without us, the
sixth first appeared in the south-west, at the distance of two or three
miles at least from us. Its progressive motion was to the north-east, not
in a straight but in a crooked line, and passed within fifty yards of our
stern, without our feeling any of its effects. The diameter of the base of
this spout I judged to be about fifty or sixty feet; that is, the sea
within this space was much agitated, and foamed up to a great height. From
this a tube, or round body, was formed, by which the water or air, or both,
was carried in a spiral stream up to the clouds. Some of our people said
they saw a bird in the one near us, which was whirled round like the fly of
a jack, as it was carried upwards. During the time these spouts lasted, we
had now and then light puffs of wind from all points of the compass, with
some few slight showers of rain, which generally fell in large drops; and
the weather continued thick and hazy for some hours after, with variable
light breezes of wind. At length the wind fixed in its old point, and the
sky resumed its former serenity. Some of these spouts appeared at times to
be stationary; and at other times to have a quick but very unequal
progressive motion, and always in a crooked line, sometimes one way and
sometimes another; so that, once or twice, we observed them to cross one
another.
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