34 On finding the Longitude by Lunar Ohservations. 



and apparently stitclied : doubting that there could be such 

 stitching, I undid a part, and discovered that they perforated the 

 surface, and then stuck in the fine shreds of leather. The curious 

 will observe tliat the patterns of the stool cushion are all pro- 

 duced bv paring the surface. They make their soldiers' belts and 

 pouches out of elephant or pig skin ornamented with red shells. 



Of their carpenters' work the stool is a fair specimen, being 

 carved out of a solid piece of a wood called zesso, white, soft, and 

 bearing a high polish ; it is first soaked in water. They sell such 

 a stool for about three shillings; in Accra or Fantee it would 

 fetch twentv. The umbrella is even more curious ; the bird is 

 cut almost equal to turning, and the whole is so supple that it 

 may be turned inside out. This (only a child's umbrella) is a mo- 

 del of the large canopies I have described in the procession; I 

 gave a piece of cloth value twenty shillings for it. The sanko or 

 guitar is also neatly made, and the chasteness and Etruscan cha- 

 racter of the carving is very surprising. The surface of the wood 

 is first charred in the fire, and then carved deep enough to dis- 

 close the original white in the stripes or lines of the patterns. 



Numbers of workmen are em)iloyed in breaking, rounding and 

 boring the snail shells, as big as a turkey's egg generally, and 

 sometimes as large as a conch. They are first broken into nu- 

 merous pieces ; then chipped round, the size of a sleeve-button, 

 and afterwards bored with a bow and iron style fixed in a piece 

 of wood. Lastly, they are strung and extended in rows on a log 

 of wood, and rubbed with a soft and blueish gray stone and wa- 

 ter, until they become perfectly round. 



Their pine-ajjple thread is very strong, and is made from the 

 fineness of a hair to the thickness of whip-cord ; it bleaches to a 

 beautiful whiteness, and would answer for sewing any strong ma- 

 terials; but when muslin is stitched with it, it is liable to be cut 

 from the harshness. The women frequently join their cloths and 

 ornament their handkerchiefs with a zigzag pattern worked with 

 unravelled silks of different colours. The fetish case is a speci- 

 men of their needle-work in the manner of chain stitch. 



V. On finding the Longitude by Lunar Observations. By 

 Mr. Henry Meikle. 



To Mr, Tilloch. 



T London, June 15, 1819. 



HE problem of finding the longitude by the lunar ob- 

 servations has long and justly been regarded as an interesting sub- 

 ject. 'I o accomplish this desirable end, various methods of re- 

 ducing the lunar distances have been proposed with different 

 degrees of success. But while methods very different agree in 



bringing 



