the Congelation if Quickftlver. 
be drawn ; but as the quickfilver feveral times- contracted f© 
much as to leave a viable vacuity in the top of the bulb, and 
the fcale ieems to have reached near to its point, of congelation, 
I am rather of opinion that it actually froze.. If fo, Quebec, 
lituated in lat. 4 7 0 , is the moft fouthern place in which fuch a. 
great degree of natural cold has hitherto been, obferved. 
§ 3. We come now to. an inftance of what, however often 
it may have happened, has- hitherto, never been fufpefted, the 
congelation' of quickfilver. in Europe by natural, cold: The ob- 
fervations which prove this fa£t are recorded in the Tranfadions 
of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Stockholm, whence I. 
have extracted the following account, from the original* 
Swedilh. 
In January,, 1 760, the weather was remarkably cold in Lap- 
land. On the fifth of that: month different thermometers lunlc 
to -76% -128% or lower*. Again, on the 23d’ and fol- 
lowing days, they fell to - 58°, - and below - 238° 
into the ball ff. This great defeent of the mercury was ob- 
ferved in four places, Tornea, Sombio, lukasierf, and Utsioki, 
all fituated between the 65 th and 70th degrees- of N. lat. ana 
the 2 1 ft and 28th of eaffern longitude, by M. Andrew hel- 
lant, oeconomical Infpe&or of Lapland, whofe remarks on 
the phaenomenon afford of themfelves fufficient evidence, that 
the quickfilver was frozen. “ During the cold weather at Som- 
* 4 bio, M fays he *, “ as it was clear fun-fhine, though fcarcely 
44 the whole body of the fun appeared above the low woods that 
“ terminated our horizon, I took a thermometer which was- 
* Kongl. Vetenflc. Acad. Handlingar. vol, XX. p. 314. 
+ Ibtd. vol. XXI. p. 312. 
t P*- 3 ! 4 ^ 
M hanging. 
