Dr. blagden*s Hiflory of 
thermometer, hecaufe the external part of the frozen mafs in 
the ball having melted before the internal, though not in fuffi- 
cient quantity to fill its whole capacity, ran round it freely in a 
fluid ftate, the empty fipot always riling to the top. 
§ 4. Early in the fpring of 1761, the Abbe chappe d’au- 
teroche, in his journey to Tobollk for obierving the tranfit 
of Venus, palled through Solikamlk, a town of Siberia, litu- 
ated in 59°! N. lat. and 57° E. of Greenwich. On thisocca- 
lion he takes notice*, that the thermometer had funk there the 
preceding winter to - 1 24 ; which, if the general ftile of the 
Abbe’s remarks will allow fufficient dependence to be placed 
upon it, would neceflarily fhew that the quickfilver was then 
frozen. 
§ 5. M. erich laxmann, late Profeffor of Mineralogy 
and Chemiftry at Peterfburg, was refident in 1765 at Bar- 
naul in Siberia, lat. 53 0 N. and long. 8i° E. as minifter to 
the German congregation of the Kolyvan Province. On the 
firit day of that year, he law the thermometer down fo low as 
- 58° -f ; whence it is probable, that fome part at leaft of the 
quickfilver was congealed. As no concomitant circumjftances 
are recorded with this fa£t, it would fcarcely have been worth 
mentioning, were it not to introduce an account of fome in- 
firuments, which became afterwards the fubjeSt of very curious 
oblervations. For M. laxmann, during his abode in this 
remote country, employed his leifure in the conftru&ion of ba- 
rometers and thermometers, an art in which he acquired great 
lkill. Thefe he afterwards distributed, free of expence, to all 
* Voyage en Siberie, p. 84. and 93. 
I laxmann’s Sibirifche Briefe, p. 97. 
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