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JOURNEY OF MAUPERTUIS, 243
who fhould imagine that there were other motions of the ftars: for this purpofe it was
fit that the interval between the obfervations at Kittis and at of Torneo fhould be as
fhort as poffible. :
We had perceived ice as early asthe nineteenth of September, and fnow on the twenty-
firft. Several parts of the river were already frozen, and thefe firft frofts, which were
imperfect, prevented navigation for fome time on it, yet left it impaffable with fledges.
In cafe of waiting at Pello, we ran the chance of not arriving at Torneo until a period
which would occafion too long an interval between the obfervations already made and
thofe we had to make there; we even rifked lofing the ftar by the fun which was ap-
proaching it, merging it in its rays. It would then be neceffary to return in the midit
of winter, to take frefh obfervations of fome other ftar upon Kittis; bitwit was appa-
rently neither practicable nor poflible to pafs whole nights taking oblervations during
the winter on that mountain.
By fetting off we ran the rifk of being furprifed by the ice in the river, and detained
with all the inftruments; there was no computing where, nor how long: we rifked as
well the rendering fruitlefs our obfervations at Kittis, and we readily perceived how
difficult it would be to repair fuch a lofs, in a country where obfervations can fo feldom
be made, where throughout the fummer we could not hope to fee any of the {tars which
our fextant could embrace, from their fmallnefs, and from the continual day which ren
‘ders them invifible, and where the winter made the obfervatory of Kittis uninhabitable :
we weighed all thefe difficulties, and refolved to rifk the voyage. Meflrs. Camus and
‘Celfius departed the twenty-third with the fextant : the following day Meffrs. Clairaut
and Le Monnier; and on the twenty-fixth M. L’Abbé Outhier and mylelf: we were
fortunate enough to arrive by water at Torneo the twenty-eighth of Odtober, and were
aflured that the river had feavcely ever been navigable {fo late in the feafon.
‘The obfervatory which we had caufed to be prepared at Torneo was ready to receive
the fextant, and it was placed there on a level with the meridian. The firft of November
it began to freeze hard, and the fucceeding day the river was frozen over: the ice-no
longer melted, but was quickly white with fnow ; and this vaft river, which a few days
before was covered with fwans and various other water-fowl, was now no more than an
immenfe plain of ice and {now.
On the firft of November we began to obferve the ftar we had before obferved at
Kittis, and with the fame care: the wideft of thefe obfervations did not differ 17. Thefe
obfervations, as well as the former at Kittis, were made by day, without throwin light
on the threads of the telefcope : then taking a mean, reducing the parts of the micro-
meter into feconds, and having due regard to the change of the declenfion of the ftar,
during the time elapfed between the obfervations, as well for the preceflion of the equi-
nox as for the other motions of it, we found the amplitude of our arc Baa
Our work now, as far as it could be, was complete; it was {topped without our
being able to tell if we fhould find the earth lengthened or flattened, becaufe we were
unacquainted with the length of our bafe. What remained to do was not an operation
difficult in itfelf, it was only to meafure with the rod the diftance between the two fig-
nals that were raifed the fummer before ; but this meafurement was to be made ial
the ice of a Lapland river, in a country where the cold became daily nore and more
intolerable, and the diftance to be meafured was more than three leagues.
We were advifed to delay the meafurement until the {pring, becaufe then in addition
to the length of the days, the firft thaws which happened on the furface of the fnow
which are quickly fucceeded by a new froft, form a fort of cruft capable of bearing
d
men; inftead of which, during the coldeft part of winter, the fnow of thefe countries ig
lai 2 _ nothing
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