mined to proceed to the next habitation, which was faid to be
about four miles farther. On arriving there, at midnight, it
was fouud to be very, little better than the other. . The
marks of extreme poverty appeared on the houfe and its inhabitants.
A cow,, or two, a little corn, a few dheep and
goats, conftituted. the whole; o f their poffeffions. Yet thefe
are in much better circumftances than : the generality of the
peafantry o f Europe,. having the benefit o f a climate that
requires little clothing, and n,o artificial: heat, both .o f which
are abfolutely neceffary in moft countries of the latter ; and they
may here, at all times, procure abundance to fatisfy the cravings
of nature.
It was on thefe miferable plains that the Abbé, de la Caille terminated
the meafurement o f his bafe from the Cape, in order to
afcertain the length of a degree o f the meridian in the fouthern
parallels o f latitude. Refpeding this great mathematician and
aftronomer, and his arduous undertaking, the learned author of
a Mathematical Didionary, lately publiihed, has the following
remark : “ Having thus executed the purpofe o f his voyage,
“ and no prefent opportunity oifering for his return, he thought
“ o f employing , the vacant time in another arduous attempt ;
“ no lefs than that of taking the meafure o f the earth, as he had
“ already done that of the heavens. This, indeed, had been
“ done before by different fets of learned men, both in Europe
“ and America ; fome determining the quantity o f a degree at
“ the equator, and others at the ardic circle : but it had not as
“ yet been decided,, whether in the fouthern parallels of latitude
“ the fame dimenfions obtained as in the northern. His labors
“ were
“ were rewarded with the fatisfadion he wiihed for, having
“ determined a diftance of 410814 feet from a place called
“ Klip foriteyn to the Cape, by means of a bafe of 38802 feet
three times actually meafured : whence he difcovered a new
“ fecret of nature, namely, that the radii o f the parallels in fouth
“ latitude, are not thé fame length as thofe of the correfponding
“ parallels in north latitude.”
I f the obi'ervations of the Abbé be correct, and I believe they
have never been called inqueftion, the refult of them, giving a
larger bulk to the fouthern hemifphere of the earth than to the
northern,1 may, perhaps, be fufficiently fatisfadory to account
for the equipoifè of the globe without having recourfe to a
fouthern continent, which many learned and ingenious gentlemen
imagined to exift, in order to counterbalance the great quantity
of mbuntainoiis latid in high northern latitudes.
The oxen for relays having followed the waggon alone, without
the Hottentot who had the charge of them, his companions
begin to grow uneafy about him. Having had a violent head-
ach the preceding evening, occafioned by repletion, he had
aiked me for an emetici" At firft he took three grains o f tar-
tarized antimony, which produced no effed. In the courfe o f
half an hour, I gave him three more without fuceefs. The
third time he fwallowed a double dofe which anfwered the
purpofe. His companions concluded that he muft have died on
the road from the effed of the medicine, and were continually
repeating in my hearing, that it was pity I had given him fo
much. Though perfedly at eafe myfelf with refped to any
3 B harm