THE TRAVELS

OF

MONSIEUR MAUPERTUIS,

AND HIS ASSOCIATES OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES,

MADE BY ORDER OF THE French King, to deteRMINE THE FIGURE OF THE EARTH AT THE POLAR CIRCLE.

CHAP. I.

They attempt to make their observations on the coast of the gulf of Bothnia, but are disappointed. A description of several mountains, woods, and rivers in Lapland in summer. A mountain on fire.

IN order to give a clear idea of this undertaking, it is necessary to observe, that the great Sir Isaac Newton and Mr. Huygens had, from different observations, concluded that the earth was flatted at the poles; but upon measuring the whole area of the meridian that passes through France, and from other operations, it was concluded by several of the members of the academy of sciences at Paris, that the terraqueous globe was prominent at the poles. Hence the members became divided in their sentiments, and perplexed by their own inquiries upon so important a subject, that was justly considered as having a real influence upon astronomy and navigation. To put an end to this dispute, the king of France resolved that it should be finally decided; and, to the great joy of the academy, an order was dispatched from court, for a certain number of the members to go and measure the first degree of the meridian at the equator. These, says Monsieur

VOL. X.

Maupertuis, set out a whole year before us. The rest were commissioned northward, to measure the remotest degree they could reach; and the same alacrity, the same zeal to serve their country, appeared in those who were to endure the rage of the equator sun, and those that were to freeze beneath the polar circle. The travels in the north were wrote by Monsieur Maupertuis, and we shall give them in his manner.

The company destined for the north was composed of four academicians, Messrs. Clairaut, Camus, Le Monnier and myself; the abbe Outhier, and M. Celsius, the celebrated professor of astronomy at Upsal, also assisted at all our operations, and their abilities and advice were of singular use to us.

No sooner was the vessel that carried us arrived at Stockholm, than we resolved, without loss of time, to set out for the bottom of the gulf of Bothnia, where we might judge which side of the gulf was proper for our operations, better than we could do by trusting to our charts. Nothing could retard us; neither the frightful stories they told us at Stockholm, nor the goodness of his Swedish majesty, who, notwithstanding the orders he had given in our behalf, told us oftener than once, that it was not without a sensible concern he saw us pursue so desperate an undertaking.

We arrived at Tornea time enough to see the sun perform his course for several days together without setting; a sight which strikes with wonder an inhabitant of the temperate zones, even though he knows it is what must necessarily happen in that climate.

We had flattered ourselves with the hopes of performing our operations upon the coast of the gulf

of Bothnia, where we should have the convenience of transporting ourselves and our instruments to the different stations by sea, and where the many advantageous points of view, from the islands in all our charts, seemed to promise us success. But when we went with great impatience to view them, all our labour served only to convince us, that this design was impracticable. The islands that line the coasts of the gulf, and the coasts themselves, which we had fancied to be so many promontories, that might furnish us with distant points of view from one to another, lay all of them so low upon the surface of the water, that at a small distance the convexity of the earth must arise between them and us: so that after several small voyages, in pursuance of our first design of making use of these islands, we were at last obliged to give it up.

We now resolved to endeavour to perform our operations upon the tops of the mountains to the northward of Tornea, though it appeared next to impossible. In the deserts of a country scarcely habitable, in that immense forest, which extends from Tornea to cape Nord, we must go through operations that are not easy, even where no convenience is wanting. There were but two ways of penetrating into these deserts, both of which we must prove; one the sailing up a river full of cataracts, the other crossing thick woods and deep marshes on foot: and, if we should be able to make our way into the country, we must, after the most painful marches, be obliged to clamber up steep rocks, and to clear the tops of mountains of the wood that would intercept our sight. In these deserts we should be forced to take up with the most wretched diet; be exposed to the flies, which in this season is so

insufferable as to drive the Laplanders and their rein-deer from their habitations, to seek shelter on the coasts of the ocean: we were, in fine, to undertake this work without knowing, or being able to inform ourselves, whether it was practicable; whether the want of one mountain might not, after all our toils, interrupt the series of our triangles; or whether it would be possible to find upon the river a base by which they might be connected. But if we should surmount all these obstacles, we should still have the labour of building observatories on the most northerly of the mountains, the trouble of carrying thither as numerous a collection of instruments as is perhaps to be seen in Europe, and of making there the nicest astronomical observations: we were, however, so far from being deterred by these difficulties, that the prospect of conquering them filled us with pleasure.

We set out from Tornea on Friday the 6th of July, 1736, with a company of Finland soldiers, and a good number of boats laden with instruments and provisions. We began our journey by sailing up the great river, which, rising in the inland parts of Lapland, pursues its course till it falls into the gulf of Bothnia, having first divided itself into two branches that form the isle of Swertzar, where is built a town of the same name, in the latitude of 65°51'. From this day forward our only habitation was the deserts, and our time was spent on the summits of those mountains, which we were to connect by our triangles.

After a voyage of twelve hours we landed in the evening at Korpikyla, a hamlet by the river side inhabited by Finlanders; and having for some time travelled on foot across the forest, we arrived at the

bottom of a steep mountain, called Niwa, whose summit, which is a bare rock, we chose for our first station. Upon the river we had been tormented by great flies, with green heads, that fetched blood wherever they fixed: but on the top of this mountain we were pestered with several other kinds, that were still more intolerable. By good luck we found two Lapland girls tending a small herd of rein-deer, but almost hid in the smoke of a great fire they had kindled; and being told, on inquiry, that they thus defended themselves from the flies, we had immediately recourse to the same method.

On the 8th of July, at one in the morning, Mr. Camus and I left our company upon Niwa, to reconnoitre the mountains to the northward. We travelled up the river to a high mountain, called Avasaxa, where having cleared its top of the trees, we caused a signal to be built. Our signals were hollow cones, composed of a great many large trees stripped of the bark, by which means they were white enough to be visible at ten or twelve leagues distance.

This being finished, we came down from Avasaxa, and embarking on the little river of Tenglio, which falls into the great river at the foot of this mountain, we directed our course upwards to the nearest place we could find, to a mountain that seemed to suit our purpose; and from thence a march of three hours, over a morass, brought us to the foot of Horrilakero. Though extremely fatigued, we got to the top of it, and spent the night in cutting down the wood that covered it. Most part of this mountain is a reddish stone, interspersed with a kind of white crystal. Here the flies, more merciless than those at Niwa, were not to be driven off by smoke, and we were obliged, notwithstanding the excessive