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.
LE ROY’S NARRATIVE /OF FOUR RUSSIAN SAILORS, 607
I had the precaution to learn from the failors whatever I have yet deferibed. It was
natural as well that I fhould .be curious enough \to queftion them refpecting the length
of continuance of the fhining of the fun, and its abfence; as alfo concerning the tem-
perature of the air, and the different changes in it which they had remarked : in fhort
I enquired of them refpecting all the phenomena obferved by them, during their un-
pleafant ftay on this ifland.
Upon my putting to them the queftion, at what time the fun began to appear above
the horizon? ‘They anfwered me: it appeared the beginning of the great falt*. ‘This
aniwer did not however defignate any particular day: the time of the faft changing
always according to Eafter’s falling early or late. Simple country people, unacquainted
with the mode of computing for Eafter, and who poflibly had never remarked the cir-
cumttance of this feaft happening fometimes earlier, fometimes later ; fuch were not
confequently competent to fatisfy me on this point.
The day they began to perceive the fun fhew itfelf, revolving entirely above the
horizon, was the feaft of St. Athanafius, which happens on the fecond of May old
ftile, or the twenty-firft of April, according to. the Gregorian Kalendar ft. They told
me farther that it circulated thus to their obfervation for ten or eleven weeks. If the
* Asit appears in the courfe of the narrative, that the failors by fome means kept fuch good reckoning
of time, as to err only in two days, or owing to their having omitted the additional ones in the two leap
years which occurred, fay four days; is it unreafonable to imagine that they would bear in mind the
period at which Eafter was kept in the year of their departure from Archangel, and confider it as fixed on
the fame day in the fucteeding year? If we grant this, as Eafter-day in the year 1743, fell upon our third
of April, according tothe Julian Computation for Eafter, Lent would eonfequently begin on the twentieth
of February, and if that day be the one on which the fun was feen to emerge fir{t from below the horizon,
it will differ from the table of Riceiolus, which calculates for the refra€tion of light, by only two days; the
time it fhould be firft feen according to that, in this latitude, being the eighteenth of February, and it may
fairly be prefumed. that unacquainted with the length to which their wintry night would extend, and keep-
ing in their hut at much as poffible during the fevereicold of that feafon, they might have miffed the firkt
actual appearance of the fun, and that for the two days which make the whole difference. Tran/lator.
+ The date here defcribed at which the fun was feen to complete its revolution above the horizon, is as
near correct as could be expected. By computation of Riceiolus, before adverted to, it fhould happen on
the twentieth of April. As to the period of its ceafing to fhine, the account of its being but ten or eleven
weeks, isincorre&t. It would have appeared for as great a length of time above the horizon after the fol-
ftitial day, as before, and confequently would have fhone for nearly eighteen weeks, inftead of ten or eleven,
viz. from the twentieth of April until the twenty-fecond of Auguft, N.S. The calculation of the perfon
to whom M. Le Roy referred for information is alfo incorre&t. The refra€tion of the rays of the fan by
the atmofphere caufes it to be vilible above the horizon before it be actually rifen, and makes it appear fome
time after ite fetting ; fo much fo, as to make a material difference in the length of its appearance in a lati-
tude fo much tothe north, a matter not calculated by him. ‘The computation afforded to M. Le Roy,
and that of Ricciolus, whichis confidered correét, I have given below.
Length of appearance. Length of dif-appearance.
By M. Le Roy’s friend - 119 - - Ii
By Ricciolus - - 124 - - 117
Refpecting the time of the firft appearance of the fun above the horizon, it is poffible from its being fo
much defired, it would have impreffed itfelf upon their minds. The novelty of its revolution above the
horizon, or rather a curicfity of afcertaining how long it happened before the time fuch an occurrence
takes place at Archangel, might have made them more particular in noticing this date, the day of its dif-
continuing to revolve wholly vifible being of minor intereft, fince it yet had to fhine for a great part of the
twenty-four hours for along while, was not fo carefully attended to. The real time at which, from compu.
tation, it would ceafe wholly to be vifible would be the twenty-fourth of O&ober. They ftate this to have
been the cafe on the twenty-fixth of October, O. S., which is the fifteenth, according to our kalendar.
May not their ceafing to fee the fun fo long as nine days before the time at which it fhould have been
wholly invifible to them, have been occafioned by the great fogs which in the autumn fo conftantly prevail
in thefe latitudes, according to the various accounts of all thofe who have proceeded fo high towards the
north? With thefe allowances made, and this doubt granted in their favour, they will appear to have been
as corre€t as men in their circumiftances of life could poflibly be expected to have beem—Zran/lator.
atter
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
