THROUGH FINLAND. 
3 § 3 
“ pointed by government to determine the length of an arch of 
<e the meridian comprehended between the parallel of the North 
€( Cape and that of Upftad, or, at leaft, to meafure two or three 
“ degrees taken in the vicinity of the polar circle. In the mean 
“ time the academy of fciences thought it might not be improper 
“ to fend fome one of its members to Tornea, in order to inform 
“ himfelf as to the local circumftances of the grounds which, in 
“ 1730, were chofen by the French mathematicians as fixed 
“ points, and the execution of this plan was intrufted to me. I 
“ am now to give an account of the remarks which I. was en* 
5 ‘ abled to make on the fpot in regard to this fubiedl. 
“ The country in the neighbourhood of Tornea is extremely 
ff flat; towards the north, however, and in that quarter only, at 
u the diftance of eight leagues, more or lefs, there commences a 
“ chain of mountains which extends all the way to Kittifvaza, 
“ near the fmall village of Pello, from whence it becomes again 
“ flat to the diftance of fome leagues beyond Kengis, which is 
“ twelve leagues north from Pello. In the whole of thofe moun- 
“ tains there is not one of any confiderable magnitude: Avafaxa* 
“ which I confider of a mean fize, rifes only to the height of fix 
“ hundred and fix feet above the level of the river. From this it 
“ follows, that no one of thofe mountains, confidered by itfelf, 
“ could produce a fenfible deviation in the plumb-line, unlefs it 
“ were very near one of the points w 7 here they determined the 
“ amplitude ot the arch of the meridian, a circumftancc which 
“ has no place here. It remains then to know what might be the 
“ effetl 
