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

324 APPENDIX. By referring these several observations to Port Famine by chrono- metrical differences, its longitude by observation will be 70° 54' 1 1" which is nearly identical with that produced by the chronometric chain from Plymouth, viz. 70° 54' 01" west. The last has, there- fore, been taken for its longitude, and all the meridians of the coast, surveyed by the expedition under my command, depend upon that determination. Phillip Parker King. After ha\-ing perused Captain King's Report of the chronometrical observations made under his direction, I would ask the reader to turn to Dr. Tiarks's Report on Captain Foster's chronometrical observa- tions in H.M.S. Chanticleer, published in the Appendix* to a " Narrative of a Voyage to the Southern Atlantic Ocean, in the years 1828, 29, 30, performed in H.M.S. Chanticleer, under the command of the late Captain Henry Foster, F.R.S.--By W. H. B. Webster, surgeon of the sloop." It ^^^ll also be useful to refer to a work on " Chronometers and Longitudes," by Captain Owen ; and to the " Pilote du Bresil," by the Baron Roussin ; as weU as other works, before forming an opi- very numerous, were cliiefly computed by Lieutenant Skyring. Duriiig the years 1826 and 182/ Captain King considered the longitude of Villegagnon to be about 43° 9', but afterwards he thought 43** 5' more correct. There is a striking accordance between the results of Captain Stokes's numerous lunar observations, and the late measurements by the Beagle's chronometers. I was informed by Lieutenant Skyring, and by Mr. John L. Stokes, that the longitude of Villegagnon, by the Beagle's chronometers only, in 1826, was 43° 9' (to the nearest minute). In 1829, Mr. L. Stokes, a good observer even at that time, took many sets of lunar observations at San Carlos, in Chiloe ; the mean result of which gave 73° 56' for the longitude of Point Arena. Now, these results are so close to those lately obtained in the Beagle being within a mile in each case — that I should hesitate to give them without all their data, did I not know that the officers employed on board the Adventure and Beagle were aware of these determinations, and often discussed them, before the year 1836. Captain King and Lieutenant Stokes are more particularly acquainted with them. Robert FitzRoy; • Voli II. pp. 233-254.