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298 OUTHIER’S JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO THE NORTH.
Thurfday morning, the twentieth, to fee the moon, which was then entirely eclipfed ;
it was very feebly diftinguifhed, perhaps owing to the twilight; at a quarter palt five it .
had not begun to pafs the fhadow of the earth, and finking below the horizon, it was
again concealed by clouds.
We continued to work at what related to the obfervations which we had to make:
we went to place in the little obfervatory on the mountain a pendulum which Mr. Gra-
ham had fent, with the fextant. In the fame obfervatory an inftrument was placed for
taking the direction of the meridian. From the time of the fextant being put up, fome
one of us had flept every night in the great obfervatory, in order that the inftruments
might not be deranged or fpoilt.
The inhabitants began to bathe frequently : their bath is fo hot that M. de Mauper-
tuis, who wifhed to try it, found that the thermometer of Reaumur rofe to 44° above
the freezing point. In their baths they have a kind of ftove, exactly refembling that
which I deferibed asin ufe among them for drying their corn; it is as well placed in the
corner of the chamber. When the block of {tone which forms it becomes well heated,
they throw water upon it, and the fteam from this water makes their bath: they gene-
rally go in two together, each holding a handful of twigs, with which they whip each
other to excite perfpiration. I have feen very old men at Pello go out ofa bath quite
naked, and violently fweating, and pafs acrofs a court through the frofty air, without
receiving any injury from it. At Corten Niemi, and in the houfe of every farmer at all
of eafy circumftances, befides the room defigned for the bath, they have another larger,
wherein there is a {tove: two or three little fquare holes, of fix inches wide, ferve for
windows ; here the family fleep during the winter. In the day-time the men work at
mending their nets for the fifhery, or making new ones ; the women few, or weave cloth:
they are, as it were, in a hot-houfe in thefe rooms, which are called Porti, or Pyrti.
Small flips of deal, exceeding thin, two or three feet long, which they light, ferve them
inftead of lamp or candle: thefe flips of wood, which are very dry, burn well, but do
not laft long ; the wick which falls off on its being confumed, is received into difhes of
{now, to prevent danger from fire.
Thurfday night we were yet troubled with fome of thofe vexatious {mall flies. At
night the fky overcaft; and Friday morning, the twenty-firft, a quantity of fnow fell
until ten o’clock ; afterwards the weather became ferene : we took advantage of it to
afcend the mountain, in order to obferve the direction of the meridian, and to fix the
fextant in that dire€tion. All night long the weather was ferene ; there was not how-
ever any aurora borealis; the wind north, with a froft. The fine weather continued
all day, Saturday, the twenty-fecond ; we pafled it on the mountain taking correfponding
heights of the fun, to regulate the pendulum, and defcribing a meridian with a {tretched
thread in the great obfervatory, to prove the pofition of the fextant in the line of the
meridian.
We had placed in the fmall obfervatory an inftrument, for the purpofe of having th¢
direction of the meridian with refpeét to the triangles; it was placed exattly at the
point of the laft triangle. The telefcope of this inftrument being pointed to the fun at
noon, or to a ftar on its pafling the meridian, was lowered vertically, and gave on the
horizon a point, between which and Pullingi and Niemi we obferved the angles. We
repeated this obfervation feveral times during our ftay at Pello. The fine weather con-
tinued all night; there were aurorze boreales, and it froze harder than on the preced-
ing night.
jsut the twenty-third, notwithftanding the north wind, and the cold continued,
it was very cloudy. Monday morning, the twenty-fourth, the north wind Ancrealed 3a
arge
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