Io5 Earthquakes. 



vered fince 1758, and the 39th which I have obferved. The 

 number of the comets known now amounts to 88, according 

 to the catalogue which is given in my Aftronomy. 



Lalande. 



Francis Lalande, nephew of the aftronomer of that name, 

 has lately carried to 45,000 the number of the ftars which 

 he engaged to determine. — An immenfe labour, which no 

 aftronomer before ever ventured to undertake, and which 

 was a dcfideratum in aftronomy. 



Dr. Burckard, an able aftronomer of Gotha, now at Paris, 

 has calculated the orbit of the comet lately difcovered. He 

 finds that it patted its perihelium on the 3d of April, at 7 

 hours, in 3 figns, isdeg. 56m. at the diftanceof ,0487 from 

 the fun : the inclination of its orbit is 45deg. 18m. and it 

 intcrfe&s the ecliptic at 4 figns, odeg. 44min. 



M. de Lalande, in a letter which he latelv wrote to Ma- 

 jor von Zach, at Gotha, informs him, that the Turkiih am- 

 bafiador at Paris is remarkably fond of aftronomy, and at- 

 tends regularly the Lyceum, where he has a fopha appro- 

 priated for his own ufe. His interpreter Codrika has tranf- 

 Jated one of M. de Lalande's works into the Greek lan- 

 guage. The Turks at prefent fecm to apply with fome at- 

 tention to the cultivation of mathematical knowledge.— 

 M. dc Lalande fays that a mathematical fchool has been 

 cftabliflicd at Condantinople with four profeiTbrs, and 

 that the number of pupils amounts to fifty. Loganth- 

 mical tables are now printing in that city, with Turkifh 

 types. 



EARTHQUAKES. 



LETTERS received from Eencoolen, Taponooly, and 

 Padang, of the rth and 7th of March 1797, give the fol- 

 lowing relation of an earthquake that happened on the weft 

 coaft of Sumatra on the 20th of February : 



The vibratory fliocks of this earthquake are ftated, on 

 pompctent authority, to have continued fur three minute?, 



and 



