Banks and Solander, both men of observation, were able to collect
specimens of natural history, and study the manners and customs of the
natives with whom they came in contact, which neither the time at Cook's
disposal nor his training enabled him to undertake; and though the
Journal of the former has never yet been published, and cannot at the
present time be traced, many interesting remarks were extracted by Dr.
Hawkesworth from it and went far to make his account of the voyage
complete.

Mr. Green also demands special notice.

One great question of the day amongst seamen and geographers was the
discovering of some ready and sure method of ascertaining the longitude.
Half the value of the explorations made up to this time had been lost
from this want. The recognised means of finding longitude was by the
observation of lunars; that is, accurately measuring the angular distance
between the centres of the moon and of the sun, or of the moon and some
star.

The motion of the moon is so rapid that this angular distance changes
from second to second, and thereby, by previous astronomical calculation,
the time at Greenwich at which its distance from any body is a certain
number of degrees can be ascertained and recorded.

By well-known calculations the local time at any spot can be obtained,
and when this is ascertained, at the precise moment that the angular
distance of sun and moon is observed, the difference gives the longitude.

This seems simple enough, but there is a good deal of calculation to go
through before the result is reached, and neither the observation nor the