fF. 334) J 
fafety, and therefore they generally have recourfe to the follow- 
ing dangerous alternatives : 
In coafting and in fhort voyages they fail by day, when they 
may fee the land, fhould they approach it, and Ue fo at 
night. 
In longer voyages they get into the latitude of the port 
failed to by the afliftance of their quadrants, and then fail eaft 
or weft (which they term running down their longitude) until they 
flumble as it were on their object. 
Every day’s experience furnifhes inftances of the melancholy 
effects of thefe contrivances ; and fhould this fcheme on enquiry 
be found capable of aflifting thofe who are ignorant of better 
methods, it is humbly expected that the Academy will give their 
advice and countenance, as far as may be neceflary, to bring it 
to maturity, and render it ufeful to fociety. 
2 
