1803]. 
bably many more, whofe attainments in 
the various branches of learning, would 
do honour to. any feminary, and: any 
country, in the world. 
(To be concluded in our next, ) | 
ea. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
2 ale Correfpondent K, relative to 
ftamps, Vol. xiv. p. 383, requefts one 
of your readers, converfant in the law, to 
informhim ‘if the venders of ftamps can 
bejuftified in charging an additional halt- 
penny or penny on any one ftamp for re- 
ceipts or drafts.” 
The law wil] not give him information; 
but the fad is: When the duty on receipts 
was levied, a meeting of Stationers hada 
conference with the Comnmiffioners of 
Stamps, and a propofition was made to 
allow the Stationers an additional difcount 
on ftamps for receipts, on the venders 
agreeing not to charge the public for the 
paper, which was confented to by ‘the 
Stationers; and #9 charge ought to be 
made on ftamps for receipts, unlefs printed, 
or bound in a book. But on drafts, bills, 
and notes, the allowance is different,’ be- 
ing only a difcount of one anda half per 
cent. if thirty pound is ftamped; the pub- 
lic are therefore charged for paper and pro- 
fit. Your’s, &c. 
A Lonpon VENDER OF STAMPS. 
~~ 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
A GEOGRAPHICAL ACCOUNT of a4 
VOYAGE made from CONSTANTINO- 
PLE f0 TREBIZOND. im the YEAR 
1796, dy CIT. BEAUCHAMPs*. 
EOGRAPHERS have long wifhed 
for exaét information concerning 
the extent ef the Black Sea from eat to 
weft, as thele dimenfions have hitherto been 
fixed only by the journals of pilots Two 
learned travellers, Chardin and Tourne- 
* The navigation of the Black Sea being 
lefs familiar to Britifh Adventurers than mot 
other parts of the maritime world 3 it will 
not (we think) be unacceptable to our read- 
ers to infert this Memoir, the original of 
-e 
which is contained in the fecond volume of 
the Memoires fur Egypte, publifhed at Paris, 
in 1801, 
Mott of the detail of the aftronomical 
and nautical obfervations is however omitted, 
being too entirely technical for general rea- 
ders, The French nomenclature of places is 
retained, but the correfponding names, as 
given inthe beft Englith maps, are added, 
(in Italics) where amy confiderable difference 
@ccurs. f ) 
Geooraphy of the Black Sea. 
31 
fort, croffed it without adding any thing 
to its geography, and even the Jatter oc- 
cafioned more inaccurecy than before, by 
eftimating his miles at a third of the nau- 
tical league, when, as we fhall afterwards 
prove, tney were much fhorter. This 
error has given rifeto,ano her, concernin 
the longitude of Trebizond, laid down 
by the Jefuits of Beza and D.u; and tho’ 
this authority is now given up by meft 
geographers, it is itil! ttrongly fupported 
by Cit. Bonne, who, in making this a 
fixed point, has thrown back a ‘great part _ 
of Atia, and efpecialiy the Calpian Sea, 
5° 30/. Cit. Bonne, whilft he has re- 
tained the form of this fea, laid down by 
the engineers of Peter the Great, has\in- 
clined it upon the meridian, which he 
before ufed as a grand axis: he could not 
alter the pofition of Aitracan, as it was 
1o correctly determined by. the aftrono- 
mers who there obferved the tranfit of 
Venus acrofs the fun. The obfervations 
of the Jefuits gave Cit. Bonne 43° for 
the difference of longitude between Paris 
and Trebizond, and other calculations and 
inferences feemed to juft:fy the changes 
which he made in the former charts ; but 
when I come to difcufs the particulars of 
his obfervations, 1 fhall fhew that this 
able geographer has been led into an 
error. 
I veceived an order, in 1787, from the 
Minifter of the Marine, to proceed trom 
Baflorah to Recht (Re/bd) on the fhores of 
the Cafpian. I could not, however, ad- 
vance further than Kaibyn, about forty 
leagues nearly due fouth of Recht. Dhere 
oblerved the end of an eclipfe of the 
moon, on the 3oth of June, in the fame 
year; but the Perfians, who took me 
for a Ruffian fpy, would not allow me to © 
make further obfervations. All aftrono- 
mers know, that oblervations of this 
kind, are liable to an error of half a de- 
gree, or 2’ of timey on account of the 
penumbra caufed by the earth's atmo- 
fphere: however, this lunar eclipfe was 
veliemently attacked by a partizan of Cit. 
Bonne, who pretended that I ought to 
have feen it 20’ later, which is an abfura 
dity in aftronomical obfervation. I had 
befides determined the longitude of I{pa- 
han to be 492% 30’ eaft of the meridian of 
Paris, which was deduced from feveral 
eclipfes of the fatellives of Jupiter, and I 
had taken with thecompafs the route from 
this town to Kafbyn. From thefe data it 
is clear, that the fite of the Cafpian Sea 
fhould be left the fame as it is laid down 
in the chartsof Danville and others. Gea- 
graphers, however, were right in concla- 
Cincy 
