49a PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 1747-8. 



koturian. Our author endeavoured to take the height of it by means of the 

 barometer. Dec. 11, 1742, at his lodgings at the foot of Pauda, the mercury 

 in the barometer, in a cold place, but within doors, stood at 26- '„» -„ Paris mea- 

 sure. He then carried it up the mountain as high as he could go, which was 

 about one-third of the whole height, where he hung up the barometer on a tree, 

 from 9 to 1 1 in the forenoon, making a good fire pretty near it, lest the intense 

 cold, which sunk the quicksilver in De Lisle's thermometer to 201, should affect 

 the barometer, and lead him to ascribe that to gravity, which was only owing to 

 the contraction of cold. Under these circumstances the quicksilver sunk to 

 <15-^„. Hence, according to Cassini's calculation, the first station will be 941 

 feet higher than the level of the sea: the second on Pauda 1505 feet, and the 

 whole height of this mountain 4515, or 752 Paris toises; which, added to 94 1 

 feet, the height of his lodgings at the foot of Pauda, makes 5456 feet, or 909 

 toises, the height of Pauda's top above the sea ; supposing the level of the sea to 

 be 28 inches, as the Paris academicians have fixed it; though this differs from 

 observations made on the barometer at the sea-coast of Kamschatka at Bolcheretz, 

 where, from experiments made for above 2 years, the mean height of the mer- 

 cury was 27 inches, 6-I- lines; and at Ochotz, during a year's observation, the 

 mean height was found to be 27 inches and about 8\ lines. Hence it would ap- 

 pear, that the sea of Kamtschatka is higher, with respect to the earth's centre, 

 than the ocean and Mediterranean; and at Bolcheretz higher than at Ochotski. 



The author finds that the plains in some parts beyond the lake Baical, are 

 almost as high as the tops of high mountains in some other countries; mount 

 Massane, according to the French geometricians, being but about 408 toises 

 high, which differs but little from the plain country at Kiachta; which yet has 

 considerable mountains rising in its neighbourhood. Whence our author con- 

 cludes, that the elevation of the earth, in this tract, above the level of the sea, 

 is very great, compared with the west part of Siberia and Europe.* 



The coldness of the air of Siberia is the most remarkable quality. In some 

 places it snows frequently in September, and not seldom in May; in Jacutsk, if 



• M. De la Condamine, in his voyage through the inland part of South America, makes Quito to 



be between 14 and 1500 toises above the level of the sea. Suppose 1450 



He tells us, that Pichincha is 750 higher 750 



This makes in the whole •' 2200 toises 



above the level of the sea. 



P. Martel, engineer, in his account of the Glacieres in Savoy, printed at London 1742, tells us, 

 that the barometer at Geneva, by the side of the Rhone, stood at 27^ I- which is 656 feet above the 

 level of the sea, according to Scheuzer ; and that the highest point of Mont Blanc, measured partly 

 by the barometer, and where inaccessible from the snow that covers it, by trigonometrical operations, 

 is 12459 feet, or somewhat more than 2076 toises above the level of the Rhone; which, added to 

 the height of this above the sea, makes 13115 French feet, or about 2 English miles and two-thirds. 



