12 



guntum; and from Barcelona made an excursion 

 to Montserrat*, the lofty peaks of which are in- 

 habited by hermits, and where the aontrast be- 

 tween luxuriant vegetation, and masses of naked 

 and arid rocks, forms a landscape of a peculiar 

 character. I employed myself in ascertaining by 

 astronomical methods the position of several im- 

 portant points for the geography of Spaing and 

 determined by means of the barometer the height 

 of the central plain J; and I made several obser- 



* Mr. William de Humboldt, who travelled through the 

 whole of Spain, a short time after my departure from Europe, 

 has given a description of this place in the Geographical 

 Ephemerides of Weimar for 1803. 



t Astronomical Observations, Vol. 1. Introduction, page 

 35 to 37, and lib. J, page 3 to 33. At this period the lati- 

 tude of Valencia was still several minutes uncertain. I found 

 the cathedral (which Torino places in 39° 26' 30") to be 39° 

 28' 42", latitude, and 0 h ll 7 03" longitude. Four years 

 later, Baron de la Puebla, and Mr. Mechain, fixed this point 

 by zenith distances taken with a repeating circle, and by 

 the occultations of stars, to be 39° 28' latitude, and 



0° 11/ 0*6" longitude. At Murviedro (the ancient Saguntum) 

 I determined the position of the ruins of the temple of Diana, 

 near the convent of the Trinitarians. These ruins are in 

 39° 40? 26" lat. and 0 h 10* 34" longitude. 



X See my notice on the configuration of the territory of 

 Spain, in the itinerary of Mr. de la Borde, Vol. 1, p. 147. Ac- 

 cording to Mr. Bauza, the medium height of the barometer 

 at Madrid is 26 inches 2*4 lines, whence it results, accord- 

 ing to the method of Mr. Laplace, and the new coeffici- 

 ent of Mr. Ramond, that the capital of Spain is 309 toises 



