788 GEOGRAPHICAL LATITUDE. 



comparison, nine triangles of Picard were also inclosed in the net.^ 

 Great was the exultation of the French, for the results of this unprec- 

 edentedly great undertaking showed not only that the earth was not 

 flattened at the poles, as Newton and Huyghens taught, but that it 

 was actually elongated in that direction. Doubts were naturally ex- 

 pressed by the Newtonians as to the accuracy of the operations by 

 which the result had been obtained. To satisfy these there were repe- 

 titions with different instruments and different methods, the entire 

 work continuing at intervals from 1701 to 1736, and always with the 

 same result, viz, that the more southerly part gave the greatest length 

 of a degree.* Still the party of theory was not to be quieted, objecting 

 that the portions of the meridian were too near together to afford in- 

 controvertible proof of the earth's form, and maintaining that the 

 true solution could only be furnished by surveying one meridian line 

 near the equator and another near the poles and comparing the re- 

 sults. This opinion gradually gained force, till finally the French 

 government undertook to provide the means for carrying out this proj- 

 ect, and the French Academy of Sciences to furnish the specialists to 

 conduct with commanding ability the operations. 



For this purpose two expeditions were fitted out with all the care 

 possible at that date, to secure accuracy in the result of their respect- 

 ive surveys. The first set out for Peru in 1735, but did not return till 

 1744. In the mean time a second expedition had been sent to Sweden, 

 where it finished its work and returned to France in 1737 ; the result of 

 the latter survey as compared with those in France showed beyond a 

 doubt the flattening of the earth at the poles, without awaiting returns 

 from the equator. The instigator and chief of this enterprise was 

 the famous mathematician, Maupertuis, whose quarrel with Voltaire at 

 the court of Frederick the Great is probably much better known than 

 his perils and hardships^ in surveying a meridian line which crosses the 

 polar circle. His line was a short one, extending from Tornea to the 

 mountain Kittis, with an amplitude of only 57' 28|," the mean result of 

 the observations of the same two stars at both end stations. The moiint- 



' Cassini, Grandeur de la terre, 237. 



^Maupertuis, (Euvres, iii, 37. 



3 He gives (CEuvres, iii, 146) a graphic description of some of liis trials. He says : 

 " Je ne dirai rien des fatigues ni des perils de cette operation (mesurer la base) ; on 

 imaginera ce que c'est que de marcher dans uue ueige haute de 2 pieds, charg68 de 

 perches pesantes, qu'il falloit continuellement poser sur la neige et relever ; pendant 

 un froid si grand que la laugue et les l^vres se geloieut sur-le-champ coutre la tasse, 

 lorsqu'on vouloit boire de I'oau-de-vie, qui ^toit la seule liqueur qu'on pfit tenir assez 

 liquide pour la boire, et ne s'en arrachoient que sanglantes ; pendant un froid qui 

 gela les doigts de quelques-uns de nous, et qui nous nienagoit ^ tons momens d'ac- 

 cidens plus grands encore. Tandis que les extr(5niit(Ss de nos corps Violent glac^es, le 

 travail nous faisoit suer. L'eau-de-vieneputsuffire anoiisd^saltdrer; il fallut creuser 

 dans la glace des puits profonds, qui ^toient presque aussitdt referm^s, et d'oh I'eau 

 pouvait a peine parveuir liquide h la bouche ; et il falloit s'esposer an dangereux 

 contraire que pouvoit produire dans nos corps 6chauif6s cette eau glac6e." 



