ON THE MERIDIAN. 289 



through the drears, it will be of .great.' importance .to. determine ; the 

 portions of places along the fea coafh Some of thofe places, accord- 

 ing to Major Rennell's account, are laid down from obfervations for- 

 merly mads under the dire6tidn of Colonel .Pe arse, on his route 

 from Madras to Calcutta, in 1784; but his route was .chiefly inland after; 

 croffing- the Kiftna, touching the coast in ;very few places; and his 

 pofitions are laid down only in latitude. ...j Others are fixed from Major 

 Stephen's furvey ; but the data feem ?d have been in fuiRcient. Even 

 agronomical obfervations are incompetent to fix the relative longitudes 

 of a number of places within a few miles of each other. To deter- 

 mine the meaftire of a degree perpendicular to the meridian affords 

 (he only correct means : and thefe^low latitudes with great nicety in the 

 obfervations is neceffaryvTt therefore i becomes an important defide- 

 ratum to obtain, art; accurate : fcale i for ^computing' longitudes, and the 

 more northern latitudesiafford iheTureuVrefults. 



. .:■■■■ ' .. ! ';i:.i\'/ ,; I - r \ \\ [ - ■ " ■ : ■ fnbll 



I have already noticed; that thefe meridional operations were begun 

 in 1805. The bafe near .Bangalore, meafured in 1804, was the firfl 

 foundation^ and its height .above the fea was determined from a feries 

 of triangles brought from the Coromahdel coa(t, and commencing from 

 a, bafe near Si.. Ikoitiass Mount.' The perpendicular height above 

 the fea of every great ;ftan6n,. was determined in the'ufual manner, by 

 ufing the contained arcs between two Rations, a method fo Well 

 known, that it is needlefs to explain it here. An account ofthofe 

 heights, with the terre final refraction as obferved at every ftation in 

 going direct from fea to fea, is given in the 10th volume of the Afiatick 



Itefearches. . I ' "■ - 



■ 



\n 1805, on my return from the Malabar coafl ; the meridional trian- 



A 4 



