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BEDE LILLY OID sk
JOURNEY OF MAUPERTUIS. 245
However the work advanced ; fix days Iabour had brought it fo near to an end that
no more than five hundred toifes which could not be marked with {takes fufficiently
foon remained to be meafured. ‘The continuation of the meafurement then was in-
terrupted, the twenty-feventh, and while Meflrs. Clairaut, Camus and Le Monnier
bufied themfelves in fixing the {takes, in company with M. L’ Abbé Outhier, I employed
the day in an enterprife rather fingular.
An obfervation of the flighteft moment, and which in the moft commodious countries
might be overlooked, had been neglected the fummer before; the height of an object
ufed on Avafaxa, in taking the angle formed by Cuitaperi and Horalakero, had not
been cbferved. ‘The defire which actuated us, that nothing fhould be wanting in our
work, impelled us to be fcrupuloufly exact. I undertook to afcend Avafaxa with a
quadrant. Figure to yourfelf a very lofty mountain full of rocks, hid by a prodigious
quantity of {now, and the cavities made by which, alike concealed, threaten the ad-
venturer who fhould attempt to afcend it with deftruction ; it will be deemed impracti-
cable ; neverthelefs there are two modes of effeGting it, the one, by walking or rather
fliding on two narrow planks of eight feet long, as the Fins and Laplanders do, in order
to prevent their finking into the fnow, a cuftom that requires a long practice; the other
by trufting to the rein-deer who are able to make fuch a journey.
Thefe animals are not able to draw any other than a very {mall boat, into which the
half of the body of a man can with difficulty enter: this boat, defigned for travelling
through the fnow, in order to find the leaft refiftance from it, in cutting it with its prow,
and fliding over, is fafhioned the fame as boats ufed at fea, that is to fay, with a pointed.
prow and a fharp keel below, which caufes it to roll and overturn continually, unlefs he
who is within, be careful in preferving a balance. The boat is faftened by a thong of
leather to the breaft of the rein-deer, who, if upon a beaten and firm track, runs with
fury. However defirous of {topping him, you pull in vain at a kind of bridle faftened
to his horns; intractable as he is, it caufes him only to change his road, fometimes even
he comes back to be revenged by kicking you. On fuch occafions the Laplanders turn
the boat over them, making it ferve asa fhield again{t the rage of the animal. For
our part, little able to employ fuch a remedy, we fhould have been killed before we
could have fhielded ourfelves. Our only defence was a little ftick that was put in our
hand with which we had to fteer as with a rudder, and fhun the trunks of trees. Thus
trufting to the rein-deer it was that I afcended Avafaxa, in company with M. L’Abbé
Outhier, two Laplanders, one Lapland woman, and Mr. Brunnius their reCtor.
The firlt part of the voyage was completed in an inftant, there was a hard beaten
road leading from the houle of the rector to the foot of the mountain, which we pafled
over with a fwiftnefs comparable only to the flight of a bird. Although the mountain,
on which there was no road, delayed the progrefs of the rein-deer, they drew us to
the top, and we completed immediately the obfervation, the object of our journey. In
the interval our rein-deer had dug deep holes in thefnow, where they grazed the mofs
with which the rocks of this mountain are covered ; and our Laplanders having kindled
a great fire, we approached it to warm ourfelves. The cold was fo fevere that the heat
had no power to extend itfelf the fhorteft diftance; if in fuch places as the fire im-
mediately touched the fnow it melted, it froze again all round it, and formed a hedge
of ice.
If our trouble were great in afcending Avafaxa, our fear of returning too quick over
a craggy mountain, was not lefs; expofed in carriages which always flided, even while
funk into the fnow; and drawn by aminals which excited our apprehenfions even on,
the plains, and which, notwithftanding they funk to their bellies, extricated themfelves
2 by
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