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OUTHIER’S JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO THE NORTH. 319
there were yet fome balls and pendulums to make ‘experiments with, which was done
‘on Tuefday and Wednefday; and on Thurfday, the eleventh, we fet off to return to
‘Torneo, where we arrived on Friday, the twelfth, in the afternoon.
M. de Maupertuis had fet off from Pello with M.’Celfius, to go beyond Kengis, to
look after a great ftone, on which certain characters were engraven, and which was
fyoken of as a curious monument. ‘They only arrived at ‘Vorneo on Sunday, the four-
teenth, at ten or eleven at night. We remained at Pello as fhort a time as poffible :
it was time to come back to Torneo, in order to prevent our being expofed to the ha-
zard of being obliged to wait five or fix weeks, or perhaps longer, at Pello. Travelling
is altogether impracticable during the height of the thaws, whether by land or water ;
‘thefe begin ‘earlier or later, and laft fometimes a very long while. ‘The {now began to
‘melt, afterwards it froze again, and formed a cruft fufficiently hard to bear almoft every
where. Qn Monday, the fifteenth, the weather was fine; but on Tuefday, the fix-
teenth, there was a South wind and much fnow. ‘The thermometers at 4° below o.
Thurfday, the eighteenth, in the holy week, the inhabitants went to church ; there
was a fermon, but no communion. On Friday, the nineteenth, they went more gene-
rally: they gave a fermon with the communion; many received the Lord’s Supper.
In the afternoon, a fecond difcourfe was given, and the prieft fang fomething from the
pulpit. They do not faft commonly, even on Good Friday; they however practife
fome mortifications, as they think proper: fome more devout than the reft ate nothing
during the whole of Friday. Saturday, the twentieth, and Eafter Sunday, the twenty-
fir{t, very fine and mild weather, the fnow melted in the fun. Eafter Day, the rector
and the minifters did not adminifter the communion : people, however, went to church,
and a fermon was given morning and evening.
M. de Maupertuis, immediately after his return from Pello, reftumed his obfervations
on the lengthening, or diminution of length, of the wooden toifes, from expofure to
heat and cold. During Eafter week we obferved the variation of the needle, which we
found to be 5° and about 5’; it was nearly the fame as we noticed in the Baltic before
our arrival at Stockholm.
The honfe which M. Camus lodged at looked upon the bay which the river forms
‘to the Weft of the town; and one of the rooms was a very fit one to verify’the fextant
and its divifions in, by actual meafurement upon the ice. M. Camus caufed the floor
of the room to be taken up, in order to fix with more firmnefs, upon a vault which was
Below, two ftrong crofs trees, to ferve as a fupport for the fextant, and enable it to move
‘in the line of the horizon with its divided limb. M. de Maupertuis fent a fervant to
Ofwer Torneo, who brought thence four of the large rods with which we meafured the
bafe, for the purpofe of meafuring a fuitable fpace for the proving of the fextant.
The weather was continually changing : at times the fnow melted, efpecially when
the wind was foutherly ; at others it fnowed again, and frequently it was very cold.
Tuefday, the thirtieth, after Low Sunday, there was a great dinner at the rector’s,
at Prefkhot: we were invited; but as there was to be a prodigious aumber of guetts,
and as we faw fledges going there from every quarter, M. de Maupertuis, M. Somme-
reux, and myfelf, did not go, nor M. Camus, whofe health was not yet perfeétly re-
eftablifhed.
Wednefday, the firft of May, at half paft two in the morning, we faw Venus on her
pafling the meridian, towards the north, elevated about 4° above the horizon; it had
frozen very hard, and the weather was beautiful ; the heat of the fun melted the fnow
from nine in the morning till fix at night. M. Camus and myfelf adjufted to their
‘proper length of five toifes the four rods which were brought from Ofwer Torneo, and
which were found each too fhort by about half a line.
6 Saturday,
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