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320 OUTHIER’S JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO THE NORTH.
Saturday, the third, we placed in the ice a large log, with a fight oppofite to the room
wherein M. Camus had caufed the fextant to be fixed horizontally, at the diftance of
380 toifes. We afterwards placed a log of wood, as large as the firft, with a fight in
fuch a pofition that a line drawn from it to the firlt fight fhould fall perpendicularly on
the line drawn from the firft fight to the centre of the objedt-glafs of the fextant. In
this laft fpace, of upwards of 380 toifes, not half a line of difference was found on our
twice meafuring it.
Sunday, the fifth, after mafs, we began to obferve the angle which the two objects
formed at the fextant: we began on Monday, the fixth, and finifhed on Tuefday, the
feventh. It was yet cold at times; but it began to thaw, the {now melted, and occa-
fionally it rained ; all this made the roads very bad. The letters which ordinarily ar-
rived on Sunday and Monday, did not reach us till Wednefday the eighth. On the
firft of the month I was prefented with {mall fprigs of birch in a phial, as flowers are
wont to be prefented in France. The warmth of my apartment made the fprigs open
their leaves. By night it froze a little; in the day-time it was fine, or at leaft mild.
On Thurfday, the ninth, the ground appeared ; being fine, we walked out of the
town to the Bolplafs (bowling-green). A part of the ifle of Lammas was vifible ; not-
withi{tanding people paffed over to it upon the ice ; and there were there already two
horfes who had left their mafter’s houfe. At our return, pafling by the church, we faw
the funeral proceffion of a girl; it confifted of ten men, dreffed in black, who carried
the bier ; the priefts and afliftants, five or fix in number, followed, having the father in
the mid{t of them; after them, another relative of the deceafed. The proceflion was
very orderly and well conducted: no female accompanied it, it is not the cuftom; they
go to the church before.
Friday, the ninth, and the two following days, are fet afide for familiar inftrudtion.
A catechifm is made, in which, indifferently, young and old are examined. Thurfday,
and Saturday, the eleventh, it is conducted in the Finnifh language, for the men and
maid feryants; and on Friday in Swedifh, for the burghers, who attend very punctually.
Sunday, the twelfth, the weather pretty fine, the thaw continued; and on Tuefday,
the fourteenth, the water began to fpread in quantity over the furface of the ice, and
make the pafling over it very difficult. ‘The burgomafter and M. Viguelius came to
refide in the town till the paflage in boats fhould be free, after the melting and difperfion
of the ice. A great number of country people coming to town had planks on their
feet, four or five inches wide, and eight feet long; they make ufe of them in winter
for hunting with, and travelling over the fnow, when there is no beaten road. Thefe
{kates are alfo uleful during the thaws to pafs over the ice with; they hinder it, weak
as it is in fome places, from giving way under them. They ufe, particularly in the fo-
refts, machines of this defcription, of no more than fix feet long.
M. de Maupertuis, before the thaw, caufed a lump of ice to be cut out of the river ;
it was two feet thick : we were told that it was frequently thicker; but that the fnow,
which had fallen immediately after the firft frofts, prevented its becoming fo thick as
ufually ir did. ‘he poft did not arrive until Wednelday night, the fifteenth, owing to
the fnow, and the difficulty of the paflages.
Thurfday, the fixteenth, the weather being pretty fine, we walked into the northern
part of the ifland, where more than half the ground was vifible. Friday, the feven-
teenth, and Saturday, the eighteenth, it was colder; fome fnow fell, and it froze dur-
ing the night. Sunday, the nineteenth, was finer. Monday, the twentieth, it fnowed
all day, but it melted immediately along the ftreets ; however large heaps of it remained.
‘Luefday, the twenty-firft, it was fine: in walking about we looked for fome proper
place
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