ON THE MERIDIAN. 2gi 



mean refult is had, for determining the rates of the Polar to the equa- 

 torial diameter. 



The prefent degree in latitude u° -37' 19* compared with the 

 Englijh, French, and Swedijh meafurements, will give an ellipticity of 

 •S4-5-.T-5-, but 1 forbear making any deductions till I have done all that 

 I mean to do in the meridional meafureinentsy and until I know fur- 

 ther refpe&ing the operations carried on in England.— IV h^n thefe 

 arcs are extended as far as it is pra&ica-ble, fome final concluftons may 

 then be drawn with refpecl to the figure and dimenEons of our earth. 

 For what has been done by thole eminent men Tent out to different 

 countries in the laft century, feems to have left the queftion more in- 

 volved in uncertainty than it was before* Bouguer appears, to have 

 been the mouY correct, and had he takea any other meafurement made 

 in the northern latitudes, rather than that of Maupertius, to compare 

 with his own, his hypothefis might have been near the truth.— The 

 degree given by the Abbe'de La Caille is as inconfiftent as that of 

 • Maupertuis ; and he draws a conclusion equally inconfiflent with the 

 do£trine of rotatory 'motion^ viz, that the meridians in. the.Touthern 

 hemifphere have a difTereiit curvature to thofe in rhe northern, or that 

 the degrees of longitude in the fame' latitude are different in the two 

 hemifpheres. TwrQvto fee that meafurement put to the teft. Maupertui* 

 has been found By the members of the Swedj/h] academy, to be out 

 upwards of 200 fathoms, which circumftance cannot but tend to lefLn 

 our confidence in tine- Abbe's performance at the Cape of Good-Bope. 



' ' ' ■ ■■ 



In' the fequel of this paper, I have added, as in my laft, a tabic, 



(hewing the perpendicular heights of thc r ftations above the level of the 



fea. this bale lines are all on the table land, and it may be curious to 



notice their comparative heights. The table land in the neighbourhood 



