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Accordingly I prepared for making that Excursion in the morning, but the first thing I did was to get upon a pretty high Hill, which is at the North-West entrance of the inlet, before Sunrise, in order to take a view of the Sea Coast and Islands, etc., that lay off it, and to take their bearings, having the Azimuth Compass with me for that purpose, the Needle of which differ'd from its True position something very considerable, even above 30 degrees, in some places more, and in other less, for I try'd it in several places.

On the 5th, we had 11° 04' westerly variation; our latitude, at that time, was 35° 39' north, and the longitude, by lunar observation, 36° 16' west. The trade wind had now left us, and we had strong breezes generally from the north-west quarter. The variation, by azimuth, on the 13th, was 22° 00' west; the latitude at noon being 47° 09' north, and the longitude 17° 46' west.

Now, it was plainly a labor of love for Captain Sleet to describe, as he does, all the little detailed conveniences of his crow's-nest; but though he so enlarges upon many of these, and though he treats us to a very scientific account of his experiments in this crow's-nest, with a small compass he kept there for the purpose of counteracting the errors resulting from what is called the "local attraction" of all binnacle magnets; an error ascribable to the horizontal vicinity of the iron in the ship's planks, and in the Glacier's case, perhaps, to there having been so many broken-down blacksmiths among her crew; I say, that though the Captain is very discreet and scientific here, yet, for all his learned "binnacle deviations," "azimuth compass observations," and "approximate errors," he knows very well, Captain Sleet, that he was not so much immersed in those profound magnetic meditations, as to fail being attracted occasionally towards that well replenished little case-bottle, so nicely tucked in on one side of his crow's nest, within easy reach of his hand.

Wind North-East by East; course North 18 minutes West; distance 67 miles; latitude 32 degrees 16 North, longitude 45 degrees 14 minutes West. Wednesday, 12th. Light breezes and clear weather. Variation by the Amplitude in the Evening 7 degrees 0 minutes West, and by Azimuth in the Morning 6 degrees 55 minutes West. Exercised Great Guns and Small Arms.

Variations by the Amplitude and Azimuth in the morning 4 degrees 9 minutes Easterly; at noon Latitude observed 12 degrees 38 minutes South, Longitude in 216 degrees 45 minutes West. It being now about low water, I and some other of the officers went to the Masthead to see what we could discover.

P.M. took several Azimuth, which gave the Variation 16 degrees 30 minutes West. Put the Ship's Company to three Watches. Wind variable; course South 21 degrees 30 minutes West; distance 28 miles; latitude 31 degrees 17 minutes, longitude 17 degrees 19 minutes West; at noon, Funchall, Island of Madeira, North 13 degrees East, 76 miles. Wednesday, 21st.

From the 16th to the 18th, we had squally unsettled weather, attended with thunder, lightning, and heavy rain. Our latitude at noon on the 20th, was 08° 45' north, the longitude 30° 16' west, and the variation by azimuth52' west: the wind blew strong from the north-east, which occasioned a very high sea.

Each patrol would be sent to a specific location and would set up a command post. Operating out of the command post, at points where the sky could be observed, would be sighting teams. Each team had sighting equipment to measure the elevation and azimuth angle of the UFO. Four men were to be on each team, an instrument man, a timer, a recorder, and a radio operator.

I landed towards the evening, and placed Borda's azimuth compass and the artificial horizon on the shore for the purpose of observing the passage of some stars by the meridian; but we had scarcely begun our preparations when a party of small traders of the class called pulperos, who had dined on board a foreign ship recently arrived, invited us to accompany them to the town.

Loosed all the Reefs out of the Topsails, and got Topgallant Yards across. Monday, 5th. Light breezes and Calm all these 24 hours. At 2 p.m. had an Observation of the Sun and Moon, which gave the Longitude 8 degrees 42 minutes West from Greenwich. At 6 Cape Finister bore South by West 1/2 West, 6 Leagues. Variation of the Compass per Azimuth 18 degrees 42 minutes West. Tuesday, 6th.