300 PROFESSOR RIGAUD, ON THE QUANTITIES OF LAND, &c. 



to the pole, so then the land being separated from the water, their 

 ratio could immediately be found for each of the thirty-six parts, with- 

 out any reduction for the different magnitudes of the several zones. 



*,* The different portions of ink on the different parts of the paper may be thought 

 to affect their weights. These are generally in larger quantities on the land than on the 

 sea, but not always : there is uniformly a kind of shading, which extends to some dis- 

 tance from the several coasts, and when the interior of a country is little known, it is 

 comparatively blank. There is reason also to believe, that when the ink is thoroughly 

 dried, it adds very little to the weight. The difficulty of reducing the paper, at different 

 times, with any certainty, to the same degree of dryness, prevents a direct trial of the 

 alteration, which might be produced in printing, but workmen consider it to be very 

 small. Two pieces as nearly as possible of the same size, having been cut out of the 

 same gore, the one which was perfectly white weighed 8.2 grains, while the other which 

 was covered with names weighed only 8.1. The difference must have been occasioned by 

 some accidental circumstances; but the experiment, as far as it goes, will tend to shew 

 that no sensible error was likely to be occasioned by the attempt not having been made 

 to introduce an allowance for this particular. 



