\ 
de la Condamine in his Historical Introduction^ 
began onr journey in very fine weather. The 
persons whom we had left in our tents soon lost 
sight of us among the clouds^ which appeared 
to us only a mist^ from the time we entered them. 
A cold and piercing wind covered us in a short 
time with icicles. In several places we were 
forced to scale the rock, by climbing with our 
hands and feet. At length we reached the sum- 
mit; and on looking at each other, we perceived 
all one side of our clothes, one of our eyebrows, 
and half our beards, stuck full of small frozen 
points, exhibiting a singular spectacle. The 
mercury stood only at fifteen inches ten lines. 
No one had hitherto seen the barometer so low 
in the open air, and probably no one had as- 
cended to a greater height : we were 2470 toises 
above the level of the sea, and we can answer 
within four or five toises for the exactness of this 
calculation. 
As we are at present acquainted with the 
influence of the temperature and the decrement 
of caloric on calculations made by means of the 
barometer, we may be permitted to doubt of the 
exactness of a measurement, in which the error is 
presumed not to amount to 5 ^ of the total 
height, though the calculation was made by the 
* Voyage to the Equator, page 88. This excursion took 
place in July, 1738. 
VOL. XIV. M 
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