330 FIGURE OF THE EARTH. 



arc of meridian extending from Palermo to the parallel of Cristiauia and Upsal, 

 across seas and continents prodigiously diversified, and intermediate to tlie Rus- 

 sian arc in the east and that stretching from Fornientera to the Shetland isles 

 in the west uf Europe, have been zealously seconded by the Prussian general 

 Bacyer, tlie companion of Bcsscl in the geodesic operations of Koenigsberg, and 

 distinguished alike for his knowledge and experience. In the memoir relative to 

 this matter, which he published in Berlin in 18G1, Baeyer does not ask the pro- 

 tection of govcrmcnts, nor invoke the learned of all countries to unite their 

 efforts, for the purpose of ascertaining whether the polar compression of the 

 earth is a hundred-thousandth part greater or less than it is believed to be ; he 

 holds, on the contrary, that the geometrical problem is resolved ; but the physi- 

 cal and geological problem, closely associated with the real figure of the globe, 

 he regards as scarcely yet defined. The idea of Baeyer, which Biot, as we 

 have seen, also cherislied, and which equally exercises the thoughts of other 

 savants, would doubtless be realized, if the local influences Avhich embarrass 

 and complicate the geodcsical operations, instead of being avoided as heretofore, 

 were purposely sought for and measured ; if, wherever practicable, the net-work 

 of triangles were extended around and over the surface of seas and of volcanic 

 regions, and across the valleys and mountain-chains of more abnormal compo- ' 

 sition; if the instruments for measuring distances and angles were rendered 

 comparable in some sort to the balance of the chemist and the goniometer of the 

 mineralogist ; in brief, if, after having defined the external figure of the earth, 

 geodesy should penetrate, as it were with the eyes of induction, into the interior 

 of the globe, in order to reveal to us the origin of that figure, the transforma- 

 tions it has experienced, and the stability, whether little or great, which it pos- 

 sesses for resisting the destructive assaults of time. Considered under this new 

 aspect, the question presents an extraordinary interest, opens to view an indefi- 

 nite and almost unexplored horizon, and affords one proof more of the close 

 interconnexion which exists among all the natural sciences. Let the project 

 of Baeyer or some analogous one be transferred to the field of practice, and the 

 nineteenth century will have won yet another title to the consideration of the 

 ages to come. 



