Hlftory of AJlronomy for the Year i8o6-. I13 



in Virgo. What he calls a fign we call a conftellatipn. 

 General Menou announces a new journey, 150 leagues fur- 

 ther. We are alTurcd that there are other Egyptian antiqui- 

 ties ; and the men of letters who go thither will perhaps dif- 

 cover a zodiac of greater antiquity than that of Henn6. 



C. Coraboeuf, when he fays that the large pyramid of 

 Memphis declines 20 minutes to the north-weft, adds, that 

 Picard found 18' deviation in the meridian of Tycho. As an 

 aftronomer I ought to add, that Picard was miftaken by 

 taking one tower of EKincur for another, as M. Auguftin 

 has fliown in the twelfth volume of the old Memoirs of the 

 Academy of Sciences at Copenhagen, 



The voyage undertaken by the corvettes le Geographe and 

 le Naturalijle, captains Baudin and Hamelin, (liows the at- 

 tention of government to the fciences. The plan was in agi- 

 tation for feveral years. Captain Baudin, having brought 

 from America, four years ago, a large colle6lion of plants 

 and inre6ts, when he made a voyage in la Belle Angeliqua 

 with Le Dru, the Parifian naturalifts were exceedingly de- 

 firous that he (hould undertake another, on a larger fcale, 

 round the world, or, at lead, to countries little known, which 

 might be more important and more produ6live. 



In the month of February he came to Paris to folicit in 

 favour of this euterprife : the aftronomers united with the na- 

 turalifts to point out the advantages of it, and they even pre- 

 tended to the moft important part of the expedition. Geo- 

 graphy has fo many departments which demand our atten- 

 tion, that we could not help feizing this opportunity of fup* 

 plying fome deficiencies in it; and the French people, who 

 are determined to have a navy, wifn to obtain certain data 

 in every fea, and to be able to aftift navigators in every coun- 

 try. This is a great and an immenfe labour; a few plants 

 and infers more is the leaft important part of the voyage* 

 Some perfons were of opinion that it ought to be deferred 

 till the conclufion of a peace; but the fir ft conful, who fees 

 no difficulties when grand objei^s are in view, was delirous 

 they (hould fet out as foon as poffible. At ten in the morn- 

 ing, Oftober the 19th, our navigators left Havre -de- Grace, 

 di reeling their courfe northwards, and at ten in the evening 



Vol. IX. P hud 



