board a tolerably lofty vessel, when between the two, this rock may be seen, or the breakers upon it, just at the time one gets sight of the outermost Fugle-Skiær; but if the weather is in the least degree hazy, the vessel would be too far from the Fugle-Skiær to enable a person to see it, so long as the Blinde Fugle-Skiær was in sight. When I approached the Blinde Fugle-Skiær I determined, according to the directions Lieutenant Grove had given me, to steer directly for it, and, although we consequently were continually in expectation of seeing it, yet we did not discover it until we were only at the distance of a few cables' lengths, when we saw the sea breaking over it. Notwithstanding that I had not an observation for the variation of the compass, when close to the Fugle-Skiærene, yet I can judge nearly to a certainty from other observations, that, in the year 1786, it was from 36° to 37° north-westerly and, as in the same year, I found it immediately on the western side of Shetland to be 26°, it consequently follows that the variation between Shetland and Iceland is, as nearly as can be calculated, ° for every degree of longitude we go to the westward. The variation increases very much afterwards to the westward of Iceland, and likewise when steering to the northward. I have observed the variation in Faxe Bay, and found it to be in the interior part of it from 37° to 38°, and, at the outer extremity of the same bay, from 38° to 39°; still higher, off Staal-bierg, the northern point of Brede-Bughten (Broad Bay), it was 40° direct westerly. In the channel, under 65° of latitude, and 35° of longitude, I found the variation by a series of observations, to be 45° 10." END OF APPENDIX. C. |