ON THE MERIDIAN. 35* 



It will fcarcely be worth while to make any deductions until my me- 

 ridional operations be finifhed, and thofe in England extended fur- 



trier. I (hall only obferve that if "the degree in latitude 11 37 49 as I 

 have brought it out, be taken with the Englijh, Trench, and Swedifh 

 meafures refpe&ively, and applied to the formulas in Art. 2 in the Ap- 

 pendix to my lift paper, the ratio of the polar to the equatorial diame- 

 ter of trie earth will be as 1 : 1.0032183, 1: 1,0034688, and 1 : 1.0032811, 

 reflectively, whofe mean i« 1:1. 0033237 or an ellipticity of §5^ 

 nearly. 



And if this mean ratio, of 1 to 0033227 be ufed with the degree in 



•Ji 37 49, and the other degrees in latitudes 9 34 44; 33 2 §5 com- 

 puted according to the formulas in Art. 3 in the fame Appendix, they 

 will come out 60472. 6 and 60486.47 refpectively, differing only 0.21 

 and 0.63 fathoms from the obfervations, and thefe differences would 

 hold good, where the three latitudes are fo near each other, in any 

 hypothetis of the Earth's figure that has refulted from the receritmea- 

 furements. So near a coincidence of the obfervations with the elliptic 

 theory, I muff own has the appearance of chance However if a 

 feries of obfervations two degrees further to the northward, mould 

 prove equally regular, the accuracy of the whole may be in a great 

 meafure relied on, and I fhall then feel defirous of repeating the 

 obfervations made at Dodagoontah in 1805; for to all appearance 

 no part of the country could be more favorable, and it is poflible, that 

 at the commencement of my obferving with the zenith feci; or, there 

 might have been fome overflight in ufing fo delicate an infirument. I 

 am not however aware that there was ; but if the irregularity was oc- 

 cafioned by the attraction of denfe matter to the northward, the mat- 

 ter mud have been nearer to the place of obiervation, than I have 

 hitherto fuppofed it to be. 



LXJi, 



