As A
Rule, Whenever The Steamer Stopped To Take In Wood, Or For Any Other
Purpose, Dr. Kirk And Charles Livingstone Went Ashore To Their
Duties:
One of our party, who it was intended should navigate the
vessel and lay down the geographical positions, having failed to
answer the expectations formed of him, these duties fell chiefly to
my share.
They involved a considerable amount of night work, in
which I was always cheerfully aided by my companions, and the results
were regularly communicated to our warm and ever-ready friend, Sir
Thomas Maclear of the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope. While
this work was going through the press, we were favoured with the
longitudes of several stations determined from observed occultations
of stars by the moon, and from eclipses and reappearances of
Jupiter's satellites, by Mr. Mann, the able Assistant to the Cape
Astronomer Royal; the lunars are still in the hands of Mr. G. W. H.
Maclear of the same Observatory. In addition to these, the
altitudes, variations of the compass, latitudes and longitudes, as
calculated on the spot, appear in the map by Mr. Arrowsmith, and it
is hoped may not differ much from the results of the same data in
abler bands. The office of "skipper," which, rather than let the
Expedition come to a stand, I undertook, required no great ability in
one "not too old to learn:" it saved a salary, and, what was much
more valuable than gold, saved the Expedition from the drawback of
any one thinking that he was indispensable to its further progress.
The office required attention to the vessel both at rest and in
motion.
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