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244 JOURNEY OF MAUPERTUIS.
nothing but a fine and dry powder, generally four or five feet high, in which it is im-
poflible to walk when once that height is attained.
In fpite of what was every day before our eyes, we were fearful of being furprifed by
athaw. We were ignorant of its being {ufficiently in time, in the month of May, to
meafure the bafe, and all the advantages we fought in {pring difappeared before the un-
grounded fear of mifling our meafurement.
In the mean time we did not know whether the height of the fnow would allow of
our walking on the river between the fignals of the bafe; and Meffrs. Clairaut, Outhier,
and Celfius fet off the tenth of December totry. The fnows were found already very
high; but as they did not leave us without hope of being able to meafure, we all de-
parted together for Ofwer Torneo.
M. Camus, aflifted by L’Abbé Outhier, employed the nineteenth and twentieth of
December in adjufting eight rods, of thirty feet each, by an iron toife which we had
brought with us from France, and which, during the adjuftment, we took care to keep in
a place where the thermometer of M. Reaumur was at 15° above o, and that of M. Prius
at 62°, which is the temperature of the months of April and May at Paris. Our rods
once adjufted, the change which cold could effect in their length was not to be appre-
hended, fince we had obferved that heat and cold caufed upon our deal meafures much
lefs fenfible changes than upon the length of iron. Every experiment that we tried gave
us variations of length almoft imperceptible. Some trials which we made give me rea-
fon to fufpe& that cold poffeffes the quality of lengthening rather than diminifhing the
length of wood, contrary to its known effect on metals. Poflibly a remnant of fap,
which was contained in the meafures we ufed, froze on being expofed to the cold, and
caufed it to participate the property of liquids, whofe volume augments upon freezing.
M. Camus took fuch pains in adjufting thefe rods, that in fpite of their extreme length,
when they were placed between two gauges of iron, they fitted fo exactly that the thick-
nefs of a leaf of paper of the thinneft kind, additional or lefs, made the putting them bee
tween them impoflible, or left room.
On Friday the twenty-firft of December, the wintry equinodtial day, a remarkable
one for fuch a work, we began the meafurement of our bafe towards Avafaxa. The fun
at that time fearcely rofe by noon; but the long twilights, the whitenefs of the fnow,
and the fires with which the heavens in this country are illuminated, afforded us every
day fufficient light to work during four or five hours. We left the houfe of the rector
of Ofwer Torneo, where we lodged during this work, at eleven o’clock in the morning,
and got on the river, when we were to begin the meafurement, with fuch a number of
fledges, and fo numerous an equipage, that the Laplanders defcended from their moun-
tains to enjoy the novelty of the fight. We divided ourfelves into two companies, each
of which carried four of the meafures we have fpoken of. I fhall fay nothing of the
fatigue, nor of the dangers of this operation: conceive what it mult be, to walk in two
feet depth of fnow, loaded with heavy rods, that we had to place continually upon the
fnow and take up again, and this during fo intenfe a froft, that our tongues and lips
froze to the glafs on drinking brandy, which was the only liquor which could be kept
fufficiently liquid to drink, and could not be got away without taking off the fkin ;
a froft which nipped the fingers of fome of us, and which continually threatened us with
greater accidents. While our extremities were frozen, our labour made us fweat.
Brandy did not flake our thirfts; we were obliged to dig deep pits in the ice, which
were almoft as quickly clofed, and from which the water could fearcely be brought in a
liquid ftate to the mouth; and we were obliged to run the rifk of the dangerous confe-
quences which were to be apprehended from taking this iced water at atime our body
was fo warm.
Towever
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