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300 OUTHIER’S JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO THE NORTH,
Holy Thurfday, the twenty-feventh, at night, the barometer got up a line; the fky
always covered with the fame north wind, but lefs cold during the day, fo that the fnow
was nearly all melted. It froze again during the night ; and at length on Saturday, the
twenty-ninth, we had clear weather.
We paffed all the morning on the mountain, verifying the pofition of the fextant in
the line of the meridian, and regulating the pendulum of Mr. Graham by correfpond-
ing heights, in the little obfervatory where it was placed.
I began in the apartment where the ftone fhaft was, to obferve the vibrations of a
fimple pendulum : it was a bar of well-polifhed iron, fomewhat thicker below than at
the top, where it was open, and fufpended on a pivot of fteel, made like a knife. I
compared the vibrations of this fimple pendulum with the vibrations of an excellent
fecond pendulum of M. Julien Le Roi, placed in the fame apartment, and which was re-
gulated by the fixed ftars.
At night we obferved the pafling of the bright part of the Eagle by the fixed tele-
{cope ; but we were not yet able to make any obfervation with the fextant ; we only
fitted it more exactly in the line of the meridian. Jt was very cold in the night. Sun-
day morning, the thirtieth, the thermometer was eight degrees below the freezing point,
and the edges of the river were frozen the thicknefs of ten lines. It was very fine all
day ; but at night cloudy with {now, which continued on Monday, the firit of O&ober,
I had gone on with my obfervations on the fimple pendulum : on Monday M. de Mau-
pertuis came to continue them with me, and went to the mountain in the evening,
where he remained all night with Meffrs. Monnier and Celfius : they paffed all Tuefday,
the fecond, there as well, which was a tolerably fine day, and at length began to take
obfervations with the fextant. It had not thawed throughout the day, notwithftanding
the fun was out for fome time, ftill we did not much feel the cold. The following night it
was fo extreme, that the river was frozen almoft to the middle by Wednefday morning,
the third; at the edges the ice was from fourteen to fifteen lines thick. Scarcely a
night paffled without aurorz boreales. Game and birds became every day more plen-
tiful: we faw large flocks of ducks on the river; and frequently heard the cry of cranes
and ftorks as they flew over us.
M. de Maupertuis came in the morning from the mountain to the apartment of the
ftone fhaft, where I was, continuing experiments on the fimple pendulums during the
time of the {tay of the others of our party on the mountain, occupied with their obfer-
vations, M.de Maupertuis divided his attention between one and the other. This
evening he received a letter from M. de Maurepas, which he communicated to us; it
was highly complimentary in what regarded us.
The weather was {till cold, and although cloudy, it never failed to freeze at night.
Thurfday, the fourth, it was more mild, and very fine, and at night we made our ob-
feryations as well as we could defire: M. de Maupertuis, M. Camus, and myfelf, that
on the bright part of the Eagle with the fixed telefcope ; and Mefirs, Clairaut, Le Mon-
nier, and Celfius, that on the ftar J of the Dragon, with the fextant. ‘The two follow-
ing days, the fifth and fixth, it continued fine, and we again made the fame obfervations.
At the fextant we always obferved three together, and not every day the three fame
perfons: one counted the pendulum, and another attended to the micrometer, while
the perfon obferving through the telefcope moved it backward or forward by the mi-
crometer without looking to it, before he faw the flar cut by the thread of the telefcope,
and pafs through its whole fcope.
Sunday, the feventh, the weather continued fine; but unfortunately during the ob-
feryation a motion was communicated to the fextant, which made us fufpicious of error.
Monday,
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