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.
JOURNEY OF MAUPERTUIS. 251
We were furprifed when we faw that this inequality between the two degrees tended
to diminifh the very trifling difference found between our two amplitudes, reducing
it from 3!” to 21”; and it will be feen in the detail of the operations, that this difference
between the two degrees of the limb, however f{mall, it may be accounted for by the
means ufed to difcover it.
‘Thus we verified, not only the total amplitude of our fextant, but alfo different arcs,
which we compared together ; and this proof from arc to arc, joined to that of the total
which we had made, fatisfied us that nothing had been left to wifh for beyond in the con-
ftruction of the inftrument, and that fo great a precifion could not have been expected.
We did not know what elfe to imagine as neceflary for the meafurement of the de-
gree of the meridian ; for I fhall not fay any thing here of our experiments on gravity,
a matter equally important, and which we treated with equal care. It will be fufficient
now to fay, that if difpofed to follow the example of Meflrs. Newton, Huygens, and
fome others, among whom I fcarcely dare to name myfelf, one might be difpofed to
compute the figure of the earth by gravity. Every experiment we made in the frozen
zone will fhew the earth to be flattened ; which is confirmed alfo by what we learn of the
experiments made by Meffrs. Godin, Bouguer, and La Condamine on the torrid zone.
In the mean time the fun drew nearer to us, or rather no longer left the horizon: it
was a fingular fight to behold it fo long illuminate a frozen horizon, to fee the fummer
in the heavens, while rigid winter grafped the earth: we were then in the morning of
that long day which lafts for feveral months; in the mean time it did not feem that the
continued fun caufed any change in either ice or {now.
On the fixth of May it began to rain, and fome water was perceptible on the frozen
river. Every day at noon the fnow melted, and every night winter refumed its {way.
At length, on the 10th of May, the earth was vifible, unfeen for fuch a length of time:
fome elevated points, expofed to the fun, began to appear like the fummits of the moun-
tains after the flood, and foon after the birds, natural to the country, were {een again.
Towards the beginning of June the ice gave up both land and fea: we immediately
turned our thoughts to our return to Stockholm, and departed the ninth of June, fome
by land and fome by fea; but the reft of our adventures, or our fhipwreck in the Gulf
of Bothnia, do not belong to this fubject.
rr
ACCOUNT OF A FOURNEY TO THE EXTREMITY OF LAPLAND, FOR THE
PURPOSE OF FINDING AN ANCIENT MONUMENT.
[By M. Maurerruis. }
WHILST we were at Pello, where the arc of the meridian which we had meafured
terminated, the Fins and Laplanders frequently {poke to us of a monument which they
looked upon as the wonder of their country, and in which they conceived was contained
the knowledge of every thing of which they were ignorant. ‘This monument was re-
ported to be fituated from twenty-five to thirty leagues towards the north, in the middle
of a vaft foreft, which feparates the gulf of Bothnia from the ocean.
To arrive there one is obliged to be drawn over the {now by rein-deer, in thofe dan-
gerous fort of carriages called Pulkas, of which I already have given a defcription in the
account of our obfervations. Although it was the month of April, there was yet a rifk
of being frozen in the deferts, where there was no hope of finding an afylum ; and this
rifk was to be undertook upon the affertions of Laplanders.
[am almoft afhamed to tell that I undertook it. The want of occupation during a
{tay which we were obliged to prolong in thefe countries till the feafon for our depar-
KK 2 ture 5
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
