THWAETED PLANS. 231 



Quenet, Desgenettes, Thouin, together with Dubois as surgeon, 

 Delille as botanist, and Nouet as astronomer, with whom 

 Mechain goes as assistant. Prony has furnished twelve survey- 

 ing engineers and six cadets from the Ecole polytechnique. 

 Berthollet, Bonaparte's physician, is director in chief of the 

 scientific department of the expedition, in which are included 

 the following antiquarians : Denon, Jomard, Pouqueville, and 

 Eozier. Prony has surrendered all his instruments, and any 

 others that were required have been procured either by purchase 

 without limit as to price, or by official demand.' On the 30th 

 Floreal (May 19, 1798) the fleet weighed anchor from Toulon, 

 and Bonaparte's campaign in Egypt was openly declared. 



Soon after Humboldt's arrival in Paris, news reached him of 

 the arrest of Lord Bristol in Milan, on suspicion that his pro- 

 posed expedition up the Nile was for the purpose of creating an 

 agitation in favour of England against the French. Humboldt 

 was compelled therefore, keenly as he felt the disappointment, 

 to renounce his journey to Egypt. This was the commencement 

 of a long series of disappointed hopes and frustrated plans. 



By a fortunate coincidence, Humboldt had arrived at Paris 

 just as Delambre was completing the measurements between 

 Melun and Lieursaint for determining the base for the meridian 

 line. Delambre was on the point of concluding the northern 

 portion of the world-famous French meridian line a line which 

 extended from Dunkirk on the coast of the North Sea to 

 Barcelona on the shores of the Mediterranean, a distance of 250 

 leagues as measured on the earth's surface, but including a 

 celestial meridian arc of 9 3'. Humboldt was present at the 

 concluding operations, and described them with great delight 

 to Von Zach : l ' At about twelve o'clock this morning, the 

 15th Prairial (June 3, 1798), the measurements were com- 

 pleted between Melun and Lieursaint for the base of the great 

 line, and I hasten to communicate to you this event, so im- 

 portant in the history of astronomical geography. In company 

 with Lalande and our excellent friend Burckhardt, I spent two 

 memorable days with Delambre. The weather, which during 

 three decades had been uninterruptedly favourable for the 



1 ' Allgemeine geographische Ephemeriden,' vol. ii. p. 174. 



