58 
the tranfit of Mercury, made at New Hol- 
land. He concludes his letter by faying, 
« I beg of- you, my dear mafter, not to 
forget your pupil, who, at the extremities 
of the worid, renews to you the aflurances 
of lafting refpe@ and gratitude.”’, In this 
manner my ardent zeal icr altronomy has 
fometimes procured to me great enjoy- 
ment, in which felf love is not the lea 
fenfation, but it is not the only one. 
The aftronomer Horner writes from the 
§fland of Tenerife, Ofober 25¢h, ‘* Ba- 
yon Von Humboldt, one of the molt learned 
and moft intrepid travellers that ever ex- 
ited, after having vifited the unknown 
part of Sowh America, fays, in a letter 
dated November 25th, 1802, that he had 
traverfed the fnows of the Cordill-ra, to 
go to the province of Quito. On the 23d 
of June, 1802, he was at Pinchincha and 
Chimborazo, at the height of 3015 toiles, 
which is cnly 236 toiles below the fum- 
mit. No perion was ever at fucha height 
before; the blood iffaed from his eyes and 
his lips ; he experienced retching, and an 
uneafinefs which continued feveral days 
after this terrible journey.”’ Yefterday 
M. Delambre received a letter of the 19th 
of July, from Mcxicd:—With M., Bon- 
plan he has formed a herbal of fix thou- 
fand plants. He nas been of equal ufe 
to geography. He heped he fhould be 
able to return in the fpring of 1804, to 
publifh the immente and valuable collec- 
tion of obfervations he has made in the 
courfe of five years. 
The talte tor travellirg into Africa, 
which I firongly recommended, has con- 
tinued to produce carious enterprifes :-—~ 
M. Domingo Badia, a Spaniard, fent by 
the Prince of Peace, caufed himfelf to be 
circumcifed, and affumed the name of 
AE-Beik-Abdallah, that he might travel 
in greater fecurity. M. Dvrand, cele- 
brated by his work on Africa, has com- 
municated to me the cbfervation of an 
echipfe at Tangiers, and I have deduced 
irom it the longitude. ‘This. Mufful- 
man is at prefent in unknown deferts, 
where, fupported by his zea!, he braves 
want, fufferines, and dangers. 
Since the longitude of Breit and Man- 
heim is known, it appears to me, that, by 
applying the meafuremen‘s madein France, 
we might have the 13° of longitude, which 
there are under the 45th parallel to a fix 
hundreth part, or 60 toifes nearly for a 
degree; but we ought to obtain greater 
precifion, and the chief of. the ftate waits 
only for peace, to precure te the iciences 
this new benefit. 
Hiftory of Afironomy for the Year 1803. 
[Auguft ¥, 
In the month of Auguit, Baron Von 
Zach eftablifhed himfelf with Brug on the 
mounta.n called the Brocken, at the height 
of 550 toifes. He made fignals with gun-- 
powder from the top of a tower; they 
were feen at the diltance of thirty-three 
leagues. The aftronomers took different 
polis, and they were joined by Pruffian 
officers, who ferved an apprenticefhip at 
Gotha. They were provided with fex- 
tants, artificial horizons, achromatic ftele- 
{copes, and chronometers. They were 
able to take correfponding heights within 
half a fecond, and they obferved by their 
chronomeiers tue fignals made by night, 
and by day, at convenient moments. M. 
Von Zach kindled only half a pound of 
gunpowder each time, In the day the 
explofion and flame were feen at the dif- 
tance of thirty-three leagues, by means of 
a {mall common telefcope, which magni- 
fied only twenty times; in the night they 
were feen by the naked eye. Theduchefs 
of Gotha, who is fhort-fighted, faw thefe 
fires in her garden, between nine and ten 
at night, without the affiftance of a tele- 
{cope; they appeared like lightning, 
though the diftance is nearly twenty-three 
leagues in a firaight line. The principal 
‘places which baron Von Zach has deter- 
mined, and where there are obfervers, are 
the towns of Magdebourg, Halberftadt, 
Quidlembourg, Beruberg, Coethen, Def- 
fau, Caffel, Brunfwick, Wolfenbuttel, 
Helmitadt, Wernigorde, {!femburg,N3um- 
burg, Leipfig, the mountains of Peters- 
berg near Halle, Weiffenftein, the Meif- 
ner in Heffe, the Gleichen near Gottin- 
gen, and the Poffen near Sonderhaufen. 
Each place will be determined by at leaf 
thirty or forty obfervations. Thus the 
celeftial arc of the parallel will be perfeét. 
ly determined. He will repeat the fame 
thisg in another manner the next year. 
Baron Von Zach expeéts that he fhall be 
able to preceed gradually to Nimeguen, 
which is fix degrees towards the weft in the 
fitty-fecond parallel. No arc of longitude 
will have ever been meafured with io 
much precifion. The cafe will be the - 
fame with the meridian of the Brocken. 
There are already three hundred obferva- 
tions of latitude, with a multiplying circle 
of nineteen inches, made by Lenoir, to 
whom we are indebted for the largeit and 
beft initruments of this kind. He has 
jsf conitruéted one for Palermo, in Sicily, 
where M. Piazzi propofes to meafure a 
degree ; but artifls of this kind are ftill - 
too few at Paris. M. Jecker has made 
feveral refleGting circles and fextants for 
the 
