SOUTHERN AFRICA. • 369 
" were rewarded with the fatisfadion he wlflied for, having 
" determined a diftance of 4108 14 feet from a place called 
" KUp fonteyii to the Cape, by means of a bafe of 38802 feet 
" three times actually meafured : whence he difcovered a new 
" fecret of nature, namely, that the radii of the parallels in foutli 
" latitude, are not the fame length as thofe of the correfponding 
*' parallels in north latitude." 
If the obfervations of the Abbe be correal, and I believe they 
have never been called in queftion, the refult of them, giving a 
larger bulk to the fouthern hemifphere of the earth than to the 
northern, may, perhaps^ be fufficiently fatisfadlory to account 
for the equipoife of the globe without having recourfe to a 
fouthern continejity which many learned and ingenious gentlemen 
imagined to exift, in order to counterbalance the great quantity 
of mountainous land in high northern latitudes. 
The oxen for relays having followed the waggon alone, with- 
out the Hottentot who had the charge of them, his companions 
began to grow uneafy about him. Having had a violent head- 
ach the preceding evening, occafioned by repletion, he had 
afked me for an emetic. At firfl he took three grains of tar- 
tarized antimony, which produced no efFe£t. In the courfe of 
half an hour, I gave him three more without fuccefs. The 
third time he fwallowed a double dofe which anfwered the 
purpofe. His companions concluded that he mufl have died on 
the road from the effect of the medicine, and were continually 
repeating in my hearing, that it was pity I had given him fo 
much. Though perfedly at eafe myfelf with refped: to any 
3 B harm 
