1811. ATMOSPHERE. — LATITUDE. — COMPASS. —THERMOMETER. 375 
very minutely every circumstance respecting the oxen, the quantity 
of game he had seen, ana the manner in which he had shot the 
koodoos ; together with a multitude of Hottentot anecdotes. 
llth. From my waggon-station, the horizon on the east, north, 
and west was as low, and as level and unbroken, as that of the ocean. 
The extraordinary clearness and transparency of the air might be 
remarked in a variety of instances, but in none more evidently 
than in the distinctness with wliich the heavenly bodies could be 
seen. Stars of the first and second magnitudes were visible the 
moment they rose above the horizon ; and some of them shone 
so much like a light in a distant hut, that I was deceived by their 
appearance, until they had risen higher than the possible situation 
of such a light. 
By the mean of two very good observations of the meridional 
altitudes of a and y Pegasi, calculated from the declinations and 
annual variations given in the ' Requisite Tables,' the latitude of my 
station was found to be 28° 50' 55*7" ; and subsequent observations 
of oc Oriontis and the planet JujJiter gave the same result. By the 
magnetic bearing of 13 Cassiope'ice, when on the meridian, and the 
azimuth of a Herculis, the variation of the compass was found to be 
27° westward. 
12th. The wide range of the thermometer in Southern Africa, 
in the course of the twenty-four hours, was this day more than 
usually remarkable. Between the hours of half-past six o'clock in 
the morning and two in the afternoon, it rose from 24° up to 81^°; 
a diff'erence, in seven hours and a half, of fifty- seven degrees and a 
half of Fahrenheit's, twenty-five and a half of Reaumur's, and thirty- 
two of the Centigrade scale ; and on the following morning it was 
found again as low as 32°. 
* llth Oct. 1811, at Klaarwater, the observed meridional altitude of 
« Pegasi (Mar/cab) was 46° 58' 9 
y Pegasi [Algenib) 47 1 41 
24th Dec. 1811, a. Oriontis .... 53 47 46 
Jupiter . . . . 37 54 44 
