Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

June 1832. meridian distances — regatta. 79 had the satisfaction of finding that this third meridian distance agreed exactly with the first and second. Upon further exami- nation, it was seen that the Abrolhos Islands were laid down correctly in the French chart, with respect to Bahia ; but that the meridian distance between those islands and Rio de Janeiro differed more than four miles from that resulting from three measures made by our twenty chronometers. A few weeks afterwards all the data and results of these measurements were given to the French Commander-in-chief on the station, who promised to forward them to the Baron Rous- sin ; but I have heard nothing of their having been received. Even those who are disposed to place little reliance on the performance of chronometers, and who doubt the accuracy of distances measured by the transport of time, might be interested by a glance at the particulars of these meridian distances, which are given in the Appendix. They much increased my own confidence in that simple method of ascertaming differences of longitude, and tended to determine my dependence upon a connected chain of meridian distances, in preference to any other mode of finding the precise longitude. While watering, and rating the chronometers, a few compa- ratively leisure days afforded a seasonable opportunity for try- ing the quahties of boats, and exciting fair emulation among their crews. With the Commander-in-chiefs permission, and the encouragement of the officers of his squadron, then in the port, some good boat-races were arranged ; and knowing how much might afterwards depend upon thequalities of the Beagle's boats, it was very gratifying to find them excellent. Four of the set were built by Mr. Johns, the well-known boat-builder in Plymouth Dock-yard, and the other two by Mr. May, our carpenter. Captain Talbot, of the Warspite, and Captain Waldegrave, of the Seringapatam, tried their best boats and best men on two successive days, to the encouragement of the boats' crews and boat-sailers of the squadron, and much to the surprise of the Brazilians, who had never witnessed any thing like a regatta. From our first arrival at Rio de Janeiro, until we were