THE CANADIAN FIELD-NATURALIST ^fjiV 



VOL. XXXIII. 



DECEMBER, 1919. 



No. 6. 



CHAMPLAIN'S ASTROLABE. 



By Charles Macnamara, Arnprior, Ontario. 



The astrolabe was an instrument for measuring 

 the altitude and relative positions of heavenly bodies. 

 It was probably invented by those eminent astron- 

 omers of antiquity, the Chaldeans; at any rate it 

 was well known to the Greeks and Orientals long 

 before Christ. Essentially it consisted cf a grrdu- 

 ated circle, across the diameter of which was a 

 moveable bar, pivoted at the centre. In use the 

 instrument was hung plumb, and the body whose 

 altitude it was desired to ascertain, was sighted 

 along the bar, the angle above the horizon being 

 read on a scale at the edge of the circle. The name 

 of the instrument, derived from the Greek, may be 

 translated as "star-taker." 



The astrolabe gradually developed into two dif- 

 ferent types: a large stationary spherical apparatus 

 that was the chief instrument in observatories even 

 into the 17th century, and a small circular model 

 that could be conveniently carried by travellers. 

 This portable type was often richly ornamented, and 

 engraved with elaborate graduations and scales, but 

 about 1480 a simple form was designed for the use 

 of mariners, and it was apparently this model that 

 Columbus used on his voyages of discovery. It 

 proved, however, an awkward instrument on a pitch- 

 ing vessel, and shipmen generally seem to have pre- 

 ferred another device known as the cross-staff. 

 Nevertheless, the astrolabe continued in use until 

 well into the 18th century, when it was displaced 

 by the quadrant. 



In 1867 an astrolabe was found near Cobden, 

 Ontario, on the old portage route which cuts off 

 the great elbow that the Ottawa river makes to the 

 north between its expanses known as Allumettc 

 lake and Lac des Chats; and as first noticed by the 

 late A. J. Russell of Ottawa, in a pamphlet pub- 

 lished in 1879, evidence points strongly to the instru- 

 ment having been lost by Champlain on his journey 

 up the Ottawa in 1613, more than 250 years before. 



Champlain was induced to undertake this ex- 

 pedition by the lying story of one Nicholas de 

 Vignau, whom he had entrusted with some minor 

 explorations in Canada, and who had spent a win- 

 ter with the natives there. On de Vignau's return 



to France in 1612, he told Champlain a wonderful 

 tale of how he had reached the North Sea by way 

 of the River of the Algcnnuin? ctherwise. the 

 Ottawa. One cculd travel, de Vi<rn"u said, from 

 the Falls of St. Louis (Lachine) to this sea and 

 back again in 17 days; and he amplified his story 

 by asserting that he had seen the wreck of an English 

 ship on the shore, and that the Indians there could 

 show the scalps of the crew of 80 men that they 

 had killed, sparing only one English boy whom 

 they were keeping for Champlain. 



Deceived by this fabrication to which de Vignau 

 actually made affidavit before two notaries at La 

 Rochelle Champlain, on Monday, the 27th May, 

 1613, to the sound of a parting salute from his 

 ships, set out with five companions from Isle Ste. 

 Helene (opposite the present city of Montreal) 

 to seek the mythical sea. The party travelled in 

 two canoes, and at starting consisted of Champlain, 

 de Vignau and three other Frenchmen with one 

 Indian; but later on one of the Frenchmen was 

 sent back and a second Indian took his place. 



A saying of the late Mr. Lindsay Russell, one 

 time Surveyor General of Canada, was that "a mul- 

 tiplicity of apparatus is the hall-mark of the 

 amateur." Champlain was an old experienced tra- 

 veller, to whom voyages of discovery had become 

 so much a matter of course that his journals never 

 make any particular mention of his equipment, and 

 we may be sure that he carried no "multiplicity of 

 apparatus." But he certainly must have been pro- 

 vided with an astrolabe, for at three different places 

 along his route he took observations for latitude. 

 The first was near the foot of Lake St. Louis on 

 the St. Lawrence, the position of which he gives as 

 45 18'. Considering the crudeness of his instru- 

 ment, his observation was remarkably accurate, for 

 the correct latitude is about 45 25'. 



In these days of swift and luxurious travel, it is 

 interesting to note that it took the explorer eight 

 days to cover the distance between Montreal and 

 Ottawa; and that on the way he was nearly 

 drowned in the Long Sault rapids. Thus, he 

 reached the Chaudiere Falls on the 4th of 



