Ch. II. SOUTH AMERICA. 215 

 lumns of fand, carried up by the rapidity and gyra- 

 tions of violent eddy winds, which fometimes pro- 

 duce fatal confequences : one melancholy inftance 

 happened while we were there-, an Indian, being 

 caught in the center of one of thefe blails, died on 

 the fpot. It is not, indeed^ at all ftrange, that the 

 quantity of fand in one of thefe columns fliould totally 

 flop ail refpiration in any living creature, who has thd 

 misfortune of being involved in it. 



Our daily labour was, to meafure the length of this 

 plain in a horizontal diredion, and, at the fame time, 

 oy means of a level, to corred the inequalities of the 

 ground ; beginning early in the morning, and con- 

 tinuing to purfue our tafk clofely till evening, unlefs 

 interrupted by extreme bad weather ; when we retired 

 to a tent always pitched for that purpofe, as well as 

 for a retreat at noon, when the heat of the fun be- 

 came too great for us, after the fatigue of the 

 morning. 



We at firft intended to have formed our bafe in th© 

 plain of Cayambe, fituated twelve leagues to the north 

 of Quito. Accordingly, the company firft repaired 

 to this plain, to view it more attentively. In thisT 

 place we lod M. Couplet, on the 1 7th of September 

 1735, after only two days illnefs. He was indeed 

 nightly indifpofed when we fet out from Quito ; but, 

 being of a ftrong conftitution, his zeal for the fervice 

 would not permit him to be abfcnt at our firft effay. 

 On his arrival, however, his diftemper rofe to fuch a 

 height, that he had only two days to prepare for his 

 paffage into eternity ; but we had the fatisfaftion to 

 fee he performed his part with exemplary devotion. 

 This almoft fubitaneous death of a psrfon in the flower 

 of his age, was the more alarming, as none of us; 

 could difcover the nature of his diieafe. 



The menfuration of the bafe was fucceeded by ob- 

 ferving the angles, both horizontal and vertical, of the 

 firft triangles we intended to form 5 but many of them 



P 3 were 



