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246 JOURNEY OF MAUPERTUIS.
by the velocity of their courfe. We were fhortly at the foot of Avafaxa; and ina
minute afterwards we had pafled the great river, and were houfed.
The following day we finifhed the meafure of our bafe, and had no right, when we
faw the precifion that our level had afforded us, to regret the trouble which our mea-
furement ona frozen river had caufed. ‘he difference found between the meafure-
ment of our two parties amounted to no more than four inches on a diftance of 7406
toiles, five feet ; a precifion which we could not expeét, and which one fhould almoft
fear to tell. Neither can it be confidered as the refult of chance, or compenfations for
more confiderable former differences ; for this fmall one almoft wholly arofe during the
laft day. Our two parties meafured daily by the fame number of toifes, and on none
did the difference of the two meafurements exceed an inch which fometimes one
exceeded the other, and at other times the reverfe. This nicety, although due to the ice,
and the extreme care we employed, fhewed at the fame time the exactnefs of the lengths
of our rods: for the flighteft inequality between the rods muft on fo confiderable. a
diftance have made a very fenfible difference.
We had afcertained the amplitude of our arc, and our figure being completed, waited
for nothing but the length of the bafe to be fixed to the feale. We then found that the
length of the arc of the meridian intercepted between the two parallels that cut our two
obfervatories of Torneo and Kittis, was 55,0234 toifes; that this length having for
its amplitude 57’ 27” the degree of the meridian under the polar circle was greater by
nearly 1000 toifes than what it fhould be according to the computations of the book on
The Size and Vigure of the Earth. After this operation we haftened to return to
‘Yorneo to endeavour to fecure ourfelves from the latter rigour of winter.
The town of Torneo, when we arrived there, the thirtieth of December, offered a
dreadful fpeétacle ; its low houfes were funk in fnow to the roof which would have ex-
cluded all light, if there had been any ; but fnow continually faliing, or threatening to
fall, fcarcely ever allowed the fun, the few minutes it was above the horizon about noon,
to fhew itfelf The froft was fo fharp in the month of January, that our thermometers
of mercury, conftructed by M. Reaumur, thofe thermometers that we were furprized
to fee fink to 14° below the freezing point at Paris in the great frofts of 1709, funk to
87° while thofe of fpirits of wine froze. On opening the door of a warm room the external
air immediately converted into fnow the vapour which was formed, making white
whirlwinds : on going out the air feemed to tear the breaft. We were continually
warned of and threatened with an increafe of cold, by the noife of the fplitting of the
wood, of which all the houfes are built. ‘Io behold the folitude which reigned in the
ftreets, one would conceive that all the inhabitants were dead. We frequently faw
. people who had been froft bitten, and the inhabitants of fo rude a climate frequently
lofea leg, or an arm. Cold, always rigid in this country, is fometimes fuddenly fo fharply
increafed as to deftroy infallibly thofe who may have the bad fortune to be expofed to
it. Sometimes ftorms of {now arife even more dangerous, woe to him who in the
country is furprized by fuch, in vain would he ftrive by his recollection of places, by
trees he had marked, to find his way ; he is blinded by the fnow; if he makes a ftop,
he is fwallowed up.
If the afpect of the earth be horrible in thefe climates, the fky affords the moft
beautiful fpectacle. As foon as the nights grow dark, fires of a thoufand colours, and
a thoufand various fhapes lighten the fky, feemingly to indemnify this country ufed to
enjoy continual day for the abfence of the fun which leaves it. ‘Thefe fires in this
scountry have no conftant pofition, as in fouthern parts ; for although an arch of fixed
light be frequently feen towards the north, they feem more commonly to occupy indif-
ferently
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