EXAMINE ENDEAVOUR STRAIT.

Soon after daylight on the 13th, we anchored under Booby Island,* the
flagstaff bearing East-South-East half a mile to the south. The weather
looked unusually threatening the previous night. Between the observations
for rating the chronometers I fulfilled my intention of making a cursory
examination of the entrance of Endeavour Strait, and anchored a mile and
three quarters off the North Wallis Island, bearing South 23 degrees
East. It is a conical rocky isle, upwards of 70 feet high, of a coarse
sandstone formation; an extensive coral reef fronts it on all sides,
except the north. The result of a night's observations on shore placed
the summit in latitude 10 degrees 51 minutes 25 seconds South; the true
bearing of Booby Island was North 22 degrees 13 minutes West. The natives
appear to make a cemetery of this island; for on a small sandy point on
the north side we found a large grave, covered with turtle backs, and
containing several skeletons. This is a very different mode of burial
from that noticed in Flinders River.

(*Footnote. The result of the whole of our observations at this island
are as follows: Latitude of the west point 10 degrees 36 minutes 42
seconds South, longitude, 141 degrees 57 minutes 45 seconds East;
variation, 7 degrees 0 minutes East. The tides are equally strange here
and in Endeavour Strait; the stream setting to the westward
(West-South-West to West-North-West) from nineteen to twenty hours, and
to the northward and eastward (North to North-East) only from four to
five hours. The latter stream commences about an hour before high-water,
which takes place at 4.30, on the full and change days, when the rise at
springs is 12 feet, and at neaps 7; the length of flood and ebb is nearly
six hours.)