Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Pages ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
236 JOURNEY OF MAUPERTUIS.
came to diflipate the mift. This difpofition of the atmofphere often detained us eight
or ten days on a mountain in waiting for the favorable opportunity of feeing diftinctly
the objects we wifhed to obferve. It was not until the day after our return to Nirva,
that fome angles were taken ; and the following, under favor of a very bleak north
wind, we completed our obfervations.
July the fourteenth we left Nirva, and while Meffrs. Camus, Le Monnier, and
Celfius went to Kakama, Mefirs. Clairaut, Cuthier and myfelf paffed on to Cuitaperi,
whence on the fixteenth M. L’Abbé Cuthier departed to place a fignal on Pulling?.
The eighteenth we took obfervations, which, notwithftanding the interruption of
thunder and rain, we completed by night, and the twentieth we fet off, and arrived
at midnight at Avafaxa.
This mountain is fifteen leagues from Torneo, on the bank of the river; the accefs
to it is difficult, to afcend it we had to pafs through a foreft that continues for half its
height; it is there divided by great heaps of fharp and flippery {tones from its re-
mainder, which extended to the fummit; I fay extended, becaufe we caufed all the
trees that covered the top to be cut down. The N. E. fide is a frightful precipice of
rocks in which fome falcons had made their neft; at the foot of it the Tenglio runs,
which turns round Avafaxa before it throws itfelf into the Torneo. From this moun-
tain the profpeét is beautiful; nothing interrupts the fight towards the South, and the
courfe of the river is difcernible for a vaft extent ; towards the eaft the Tenglio is traced
through feveral lakes that it paffes; on the north the view extends twelve or fifteen
leagues, where it is interrupted by a multitude of mountains, heaped one upon the
other refembling chaos, among which it was not eafy to find that which we had feen
from Avafaxa.
We paffed ten days on this mountain, during which, curiofity often procured us vifits
from the inhabitants of the neighbouring country; they brought us fifh, fheep, and
fuch wretched fruits as grow in their forefts.
Between this mountain and Cuitapari, the river is exceeding broad, and forms a kind
of lake, which as well as that it was extenfive, was very advantageoufly fituated for
our bafe ; Meffrs. Clairaut and Camus took upon themfelves the care of afcertaining its
direétion, and for that purpofe remained at Ofwer Torneo after our obfervations upon
Avafaxa were compleated ; while went to Pullingi with Meffrs. Le Monnier, Cuthier,
and Celfius. On the fame day that we left Avafaxa we pafled the polar circle, and
arrived the next day (31 July) at three o’clock in the morning at Turtula, a kind of
hamlet for the reapers of the little barley and grafs that grow in thofe parts. After
walking fometime in the foreft, we embarked on a lake which carried us to the foot of
Puilingi.
It oe thi higheft of the mountains, and extermely difficult of accefs from the fudden-
nefs with which it rifes, and from the height of the mofs in which we could fearcely
walk. We got to the fummit however at fix o’clock in the morning, and the ftay we
made from the thirty-firft July to fixth Auguft was as painful as our afcent. It was
neceffary we fhould cut down a foreft of the largeft trees ; and the flies were fo trouble-
fome, that our foldiers of the regiment of Weltro-Bothnia, a regiment diftinguifhed
even in Sweden, where there are fo many brave men ; thefe men, enured to the greatelt
hardfhips, were obliged to envelope their faces, and cover them with pitch ; thefe in+
feéts infected every thing we were about to eat; as foon as expofed, our meat was
black over with them. ‘The birds of prey were not lefs famifhed, they flew round us
continually, to feize on fome joints of mutton which were cooking for us,
I The
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
