Modern geography ... The astronomical introduction by M. La Croix ... Translated by John Pond ... The third edition, corrected, etc

Introduction

BY M. LA CROIX, MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OE FRANCE; TRANSLATED BY JOHN POND ESQ. ASTRONOMER-ROYAL. WITH NUMEROUS MAPS, REVISED BY THE AUTHOR, AND ENGRAVED BY MR. LOWRY. Tv the whole are added, a Catalogue ofthe best Maps, and Booh qf Travels and Voyages, in all Languages : and an ample Index. HEW EDITION, WITH ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS TO THE YEAR 1817, IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. — EUROPE, AND PART OF ASIA. LONDON: PRINTED FOR T. CADELL AND W. DAVIES, STRAND ; AND LONGMAN, HURST, REEJ, ORME, AND BROWN, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1817. Primed by A. Strahan^ Prinwrt-Strett, London.

ADVERTISEMENT.

TO THE THIRD EDITION. r I ''HE publishers conceiving that an edition of this Work in two volumes quarto would be more -*• convenient for general use than the former, which was divided into three, this intention has been accomplished by a smaller type and greater compression. Some extracts, of little importance to the English reader, though useful in the foreign editions, as the works have not been translated into other languages, are here omitted ; but in other respects the work has been rather enlarged, and has at the same time admitted some corrections and improvements. # The account of the most important Spanish colony in America, New Spain, which had remained in singular obscurity from the jealousy of its possessors, has in particular been almost written anew, the materials furnished by the recent interesting publications of the travels of Humboldt and Pike having far surpassed all the former information concerning this grand and opulent province.

Important addition? will also be found in the description of the various colonies in South America. Of the recent revolutions in the Spanish colonies, few memorials that can serve the extreme accuracy of history have yet been received ; but it appears that, under a sincere or simulated allegiance to Ferdinand the Seventh, they have all withdrawn their adherence to the parent country, except New Spain, which seems to await the assistance of the United States. From a recent publication it appears that Tonquin, Cochin China, and some adjacent realms, are now united into one empire like that of the Birmans. This work being originally founded upon the ancient, and, in many instances, natural divisions of Europe, it has been regarded as beneath the dignity of the science to render it an almanac of the recent fluctuations in the divisions of states, the more especially as it has already been adduced in favour of concessions, which can only be regulated by a general peace ; our adversaries affecting to confound the voice of an individual with that of the government or nation.

The description of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland has been retouched and corrected in several parts, chiefly from notes communicated by learned correspondents : but the account of a recent discovery in the Isle of Skey did not appear till the impression was nearly completed. The description is conveyed in a style of such singular affectation that the object is only seen as through a mist. It appears, however, that in the year 1808 there was discovered in the S.E. angle of the Isle of Skey a beautiful cave, about two hundred and fifty feet in depth, clothed with stalactites and stalagmites of white marble, in the form of pillars, statues, 8cc. so as to rival the famous grotto of Antiparos. The accounts of Russia, and some other European countries, have been improved by extracts from German authors little known in this country.

A learned traveller of great celebrity also kindly imparted his copy of the former edition in three volumes, with his notes on many countries which he had visited in Europe, Asia, and Africa. The astronomical introduction to this work by the learned Dr. Vince having been found too extensive, and abundant in topics not strictly connected with geography, it has, at the request of many readers, been supplied by that of Lacroix to the French edition, which is universally acknow- * Three new maps have also been inserted. *A 3 ledged YoL. I.

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TO ledged to be the ablest and most appropriated which has yet been prefixed to any geographical system. He may perhaps, however, have improved or augmented it in the new and splendid edition of this work about to be published at Paris, with the notes of many eminent literati, as it has been ordered to be used in all the military academies of the empire.* The present translation is from the former French editions; and the name of the translator is a sufficient recommendation of his accuracy and consummate skill in the subject. In the projection of maps some improvements were suggested by Murdoch, whose plan appeared about fifty years ago in the Philosophical Transactions. Some were also estimated by Euler and Lambert, both geometricians of the first rank. Lambert was a member of the Royal Academy at Berlin, where he died in 1775.

One of his last works was his Letters on Cosmo gony, published about 1765, probably in the German language. The French translator altered the form, reducing them to a regular plan in distinct chapters; and of the latter an English translation appeared in 1800, i2mo. This little work, intended to be of a popular nature like Fontenelle's Plurality of Worlds, has the advantage of being founded on Newtonian principles, combined with the most recent discoveries, and the most profound geometrical demonstrations, while Fontenelle's, as is well known, is founded on the reveries of Descartes. Some of the most striking features of this work of Lambert are his ideas concerning the position of this our solar system with regard to the universe, and his doctrine concerning comets. The recent appearance of two remarkable comets in the space os a few years, and the numbers observed by Herschel's great telescope, will lend additional interest to his ideas on this singular subject, and if they were just, instead of planetary systems we should speak of cometary systems.

As the work is * That there is an enlarged edition of this introduction by M. Lacroix would appear from the follow ingnotice which the author has just received from Paris, dated ist July 181 1, announcing the appearance of the first volume of this new edition, with illustrations by some of the most learned men in France. " Geographie Moderne, redigee sur un nouveau Plan, ou Description historique, politique, civile, et naturelle, des Empires, Royaumes, Etats, et leurs Colonies, avec celles des Mers et des lies de toutes les Parties du Monde, par J. Pinkerton et C. A. Walckenaer, revue, corrigee, et considerablement augmentee, principalement d' Articles sur les Langues, par L. Langles, Membre de l'lnstitut, l'un des Administrateurj- Conservateurs de la Bibliotheque Imperiale, etc. Precedee d'une Introduction a la Geographie mathe matique et critique, et a la Geographie physique, omee de Cartes et Planches, par 5.

F. Lacroix, Membre de l'lnstitut de la Legion d'Honneur, etc. ; suivie d'un Prfecis de Geographie ancienne, par J. D. Bar bie du Bocage, Membre de l'lnstitut, Professeur de Geographie et d'Histoire a l'Universite Imperiale, etc. • accompagnee d'un Atlas Grand, in folio, dresse par P. Lapie, Ingenieur-gcographe, d'apres les Autorites les plus rccentes ; avec un Liste des meilleurs Cartes et Livres de Voyages. Tom. 1. in 8vo. Prix, avec les Cartes en noir gr. in fol. - - - 1 1 fr. Le meme, avec les Cartes colories, - - - - 12 fr. Pap. vel. superfin, dont il y a tr^s-peu d'Exemplaires, 24. fr. " Ce volume sera bientot sum d'un second, qui contiendra l'Asie jusques et compris l'Empire des Bir mans, avec les cartes des differens pays decrits dans cette seconde livraison. " Le meme librnire vend separement, d'apres les demandes des instituteurs et des cleves, I' Introduction i la Geographie mtithematique et critique, et a la Geographie physique, par M. Lacroix.

Ce volume est ac eorr>pa£fne de belles cartes ; Prix, avec les Cartes en noir, - - . . q fr. Avec les Cartes coloriee, - - - - 10 fr. Avec les mappemondes grand in folio, non pliees, - - 1 1 fr. ■ A Paris, chez J. G. Dentu, Imprimeur-libraire Rue du Pont de Lodi, No. 3. pres le Pont-Neuf et Palais- Royal, galeries de bois, No. 265 et 266. 181 1. " On trouve chez le meme Libraire : " Moyen de parvenir en Litte'rature, ou Memoire a consulter sur une question de propriete litteraire dans lequel on prove que le Sieur Malte-Brun, se disant Geographe Danois, a copie litteralement une grande partie des Œuvres de M. Gossellin, ainsi que de celles de MM. Lacroix, Pinkerton, Puissant, etc ! etc. ! et les a fait imprimer et dtbiter sous son nom ; et dans lequel on discute cette question importante pour "le commerce de la libraire : " Qu'est-ce qui distingue le plagiare-copiste du simple contrefacteur ; et jusqu'a quel poinr le premier peut-il etre regarde comme devant encourir la peine portee par la loi contre le der nier ?"

Par Jean-Gabriel Dentu, Lr.primeur-libraire, Editeur de la Geographie de J. Pinkerton ; 1 vol. in 8vo. de 200 pages, grande justification ; deuxieme edition, augmentee d'un grand nombre d'articles'nouveaux copies de li Geographie de Pinkerton, etc. etc. Prix, 2 fr." full THIS EDITION. III full os new and sublime ideas concerning the universe, regarding which and its great Creator the most sublime ideas must be the most veracious, and has remained in singular obscurity, translations from the German being little known at the time when it was published ; his discussion concerning the number of comets shall be laid before the reader, whom it may instruct by its truth, elevate by its grandeur, or amuse by its imagination. " Number of Comets. [Part I. ch. 5.] " The history of the heavens, or, which is the same thing, of astronomical observations, informs us that the number of comets exceeds that of the planets.

Halley's table, in which we only find the comets whose course had been observed to his time, contains 24, but which we ought to re duce to 2 1, because two of them make properly but one, which appeared twice : and three others, in the same manner, make but one, which appeared at three different periods. " Amongst these twenty-one, we have two only whose perihelion is farther removed from the Sun than the mean distance of the Earth : all the remaining nineteen have it between the Earth and the Sun : two of these last pass between the Earth and Venus, eleven between Venus and Mercury, six between Mercury and the Sun. " A small degree of attention to the position of the earth, and that of her orbit, will convince us, that the comets which shew themselves to us are nothing compared with those that escape our observation.

" The comets which descend below Mercury are almost all visible, either as they approach their perihelion, or as they ascend towards their aphelion. The only case in which they may conceal themselves, is when the extended part of their orbit lies beyond the Sun, relatively to the Earth, and when they have at the same time a southern latitude in the situations where other wise they might be visible. Then they are scarcely to be observed, except on the other side of the equator. In our climates they skulk under the horizon at the time we should have the best chance of observing them. *' We see likewise such as pass between Mercury and Venus with great ease. Their light is extremely vivid ; their enormous tail draws out still more in length on their approach to the Sun, as was observed tobe the case with that of 1744; and their progress round him occupies the space of some months, a period sufficient to enable us to observe them, either in the evening ©r the morning, whatever be the Earth's position in relation to them and the Sun.

" The case of comets, whose perihelion is as remote from the Sun as our Earth, or at a still greater distance, is quite different ; they have a fainter light and the tail is shorter ; near the Earth their apparent motion is extremelyrapid, insomuch that they move at the rate of ten, and sometimes twenty degrees a day and even more. They continue visible only during some days, or at most some weeks : besides it is necessary that the earth should be in the most favourable position in regard of the comet. Their size quickly diminishes, and they hasten to withdraw Trom our view. The comets of this order, provided we assign them long ellipses, would employ between their departure and their return a period that must be measured by ages. " We may rank in this class almost all the comets which shine for a few nights only ; a space frequently too short to afford us an opportunity to determine their orbits.

Some of them escape us during thick hazy weather, and once they are out of view of the naked eye, it is a matter of the greatest accident if we are able to catch them with the telescope. " As the prodigious bulk of a comet's atmosphere darkens its lustre, it is hardly possible to see such as sojourn above the sphere of Mars ; and even those which we have had time enough to observe, disappear as soon as they get to the height of that planet. The comet of the year 1759 passes five years in the sphere of Saturn, while we see it only about as many months. All this agrees perfectly with Halley's table, where we find but two comets out of twenty-one whose perihelion is at a greater distance from the Sun than the earth is from the same body. " This table being constructed on observations which we owe to accident, lays but a weak foundation for judging of the possible number of comets. If we suppose that, of all the comets A 4 of

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TO IV of our system, that of 1680 has its perihelion nearest the Sun, we can conceive sive or six others equally near him, and twelve at double the distance. This is a moderate estimate ; for there is nothing to hinder our making comets pass by hundreds, perhaps by thousands between Mercury and the Sun. Let us begin, however, by Halley's table, and compute from it the number of comets we may assign to the solar system. " In order to restrict our terms still more, we will admit of no perihelion, beyond the regions of Saturn ; though since Saturn's distance from the nearest fixed star exceeds his distance from the Sun, by more than fifty thousand times, we have no reason to confine ourselves for want of room. " We require, in the second place, that the comets have such an arrangement as that they shall never meet nor disturb each other in their career.

For this purpose their orbits must not intersect each other in any one point ; and further, these orbits must not be regarded as geometrical lines; though we will conceive the sphere of each comet's activity to be so defined, as to restrain it from making irruptions into the spheres of others, and committing such disorders as would unavoidably arise from violent aberrations. " This being premised we proceed to our calculation : — " If we consider, first, the six comets which Halley's table shews us between Mercury and the Sun, I would ask in what ratio we ought to suppose their number increases ? At first sight we should imagine that it is in the ratio of the cubes of the distance of perihelions from the Sun, because we can thus distribute perihelions in each spherical space which we conceive about a given point ; and this would answer, in fact, did the comets remain immoveable, constantly at tached to their perihelions.

But our second term requires that they should have the freedom of motion, and excludes the intersection of orbits; consequently it opposes an increase in the ratio of cubes, and reduces it to that of the squares of the distances. " Though we had no right to expect that this law should exactly obtain in Halley's table, we nevertheless find it verified in respect of the comets which have their perihelions nearer the Sun than Venus ; for the table gives seventeen comets between Venus and Mercury ; and six be tween Mercury and the Sun ; a difference which is nearly in the proportion of three to one, or in that of the square of the distance of those two planets from the Sun. " The square of the distance of Saturn exceeds the square of the distance of Mercury about six hundred times ; and consequently, if we every where place the perihelions at the same distances, we shall then have six times six hundred, or 3,600 perihelions with their comets in our system. « But this number, deduced from Halley's table, is evidently by far too small, as may be easily shewn.

Let us recollect, that we can see none of the comets which have their perihelions beyond Mars. The plane of Mars's orbit is forty times smaller than that of the orbit of Saturn ; and therefore of these 3,600 comets, we could see a fortieth part only, that is to say, ninety. Now we learn from history and tradition, that the number of comets seen, (I do not say observed,) exceeds two hundred, without noticing meteors, which sometimes have been confounded with those bodies. On the other hand, if we consider how many comets may be supposed to have passed without observation, whether in the day-time, or in a clouded state of the skies, or by reason of their southern latitude : all these circumstances, I say, taken into account, we may boldly double two hundred in order to come at the number of those which fall within the field of our view.

Such as have appeared more than once may be left out of the reckoning. Besides, that they are not seen every time they return, their return happens but very seldom, on account of the magnitude of the greatest part of the comet's orbits ; probably there are comets which have appeared but once since the flood : in short, though their number was to be estimated much higher, it would be amply compensated by that of comets which escape our observation from the difficulty of find ing them ; for there scarcely passes a year when we should not see comets, did we know when to expect them. « From the year 1500 to 1600, there appeared more than forty comets, not one ofwhich has, it should seem, been seen again during this long period ; hitherto we know of none except that THIS EDITION. V that os 1 759, whose revolution is less than a century.

This would give us, for four centuries, 160 comets ; let us deduct 60, if you please, for such as may have been seen more than once, there will remain a hundred. Upon the supposition that we see the third part only of those that might be seen, the triple of this number gives us three hundred. These three hundred taken forty times, that is to say, as often as the sphere of Saturn surpasses that of Mars, which sets bounds to the visibility of comets, will produce 1200, instead of 3,600, the number calculated from Halley's table. But we take things with a great abatement if we reckon only 300 visible comets ; there is reason to believe that their number amounts to some thousands ; at least the table by the different positions it assigns to orbits, and the chasms it leaves to be filled up, gives countenance to this opinion.

" The following is a more just estimate : — " Taking for our basis the comet of 1680, whose perihelion was more than sixty times nearer the Sun than Mercury, we may place between Mercury and the Sun the whole 3,600 perihelions which we had dispersed all the way to Saturn ; for this number, is precisely the square of 60. In this manner we shall have six hundred times as many within the bounds of Saturn ; or in other words, above two millions. In short, as one may suppose, on the side of the perihelion of 1680, two or three similar perihelions, a very moderate estimate, will give motion in our solar system, to at least five hundred millions of comets. " All these comets, agreeable to our hypothesis, would have their perihelions nearer the Sun than that of Saturn. But what is to prevent our conceiving others vastly more remote, even beyond the sphere of that planet ?

Space expands in proportion to its distance from the Sun ; and likely it is in those far situated regions where float the comets of the larger size ; comets, possibly, with satellites, whose enormous masses, and tremendous spheres of activity, forbid a nearer approach to the Sun, in whose bounds space is more confined, and requires to be managed with a sort of œconomy. " How prodigious is the number of comets ! What then becomes of the planets ? They seem to be lost amidst the innumerable celestial orbs that surround the Sun. How small a part of our system is known! What a pitiful molehill is our earth; and, how insignificant are we— we who creep so proudly on its surface !" In another passage he thus expresses himself : — " It will be recollected, that by placing six perihelions only between Mercury and the Sun, we found 3,600 elliptic orbits between the Sun and Saturn.

Here, however, we should scarcely find 150 circular ones. " We easily perceive that the great inconvenience of circles is owing to this circumstance, that they must be concentric ; an inconvenience which does not occur in the case of the ellipses ; and so much the less in proportion as they are oblong, like those we have seen described by comets passing between Mercury and the Sun. For the Sun is not in their centre, but in one of their focuses. Hence it is, that we cannot only imagine several of an equal magnitude, but we may interlace them a thousand different ways, and make them diverge above, below, and on each side, towards all the regions of the woijd. In order to render the idea still more sensible, we have only to construct a sphere composed of elliptic bands or fillets, and compare it with another made of those of a circular form.

" It being then unquestionable that ellipses supply orbits in infinitely greater abundance than circles do, we will cease to be astonished that we should people the heavens with so many legions of comets ; and instead of being surprised that the number of the planets is so small, we shall rather ask why we have any of them at all. One is disposed to imagine, that for the good of the world, not one of them should be suffered to exist. By what title, in fact, can we pretend to hold cur place ? We may alledge, for want of a better reason, that good order, and the regular variety of system, required that, among others, there should be globes whose inhabitants might enjoy a more equable temperature. Perhaps also, room was found for a few circles in vol. i. *a the VI

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TO the interstices of the elliptic orbits, and we are here only by way of silling up the empty stowage *. The tendency of astronomy to enforce the most ardent devotion, and the most sublime ideas of the Supreme Being, is well illustrated by our ingenious author. Having combated the notion entertained by some, that the planets of our system were originally comets, he observes, that these sixteen comets could never have wandered from their ancient paths in the precise manner that was necessary, in order to their entering new orbits, situated in the same plane, and in a plane which is in common to them with the Sun's equator. Nothing here savours of chance ; every thing indicates design and regulation. The heavenly bodies are at this day what they were from the beginning. The tribute to the immortal Newton also deserves transcription.

" In a word, the whole agrees, and seems to be arranged conformable to our idea ; reasons of physics and cosmogony tend equally to its confirmation. Here, then, is the triumph of the Newtonian law ; so wonderfully does it coincide with the principles of cosmogony, which the Supreme Architect must have observed ; with the order, the variety, the periodical motions of the heavenly bodies ; and with the population of the solar system. It provides for every thing, and, probably, the whole taken together, constitutes a maximum, in which obtains the highest possible perfection. " The same beautiful combination no doubt implies the motives of preference given to the law of gravitation over all others, in the organization of the world ; motives which hitherto have not been fully unfolded. We see, in fact, the high prerogatives of this law above every other the imagination might suggest.

If, for example, the heavenly bodies described, instead of ellipses, spiral lines ; each spiral, not to mention other inconveniences, would occupy an entire plane, and its progress being impeded near the Sun, would not admit the intersection of other spirals. Still, however, this will not prove the necessity of ellipses ; if ever this proof shall be discovered, it will probably be through the resources to which we have already referred. " All those discoveries which have been, and in process of time may be made, exalt the glory of the immortal Newton, who derived this admirable law from the depth of his own genius. His name, for ever revered and sacred on earth, ought to soar through all the regions of space which he has measured ; through all the globes which he has weighed ; and be echoed in the music of the celestial spheres."

The curious reader may also wish to see the result of his speculations concerning the position of our solar system in the infinite space of the universe. " Our earth belongs, by a chain of gradations, to several systems, and at last to the system of the universe : all the centres of those systems as well as the universal centre, exert their influence * The comets of 1807 and 1811 have excited the attention of our journalists, who have retailed to the public antiquated ideas, irreconcileable with the recent progress of chemistry and other sciences. Even the immortal Newton could not foresee that progress, nor the differences lately observed between the rays that produce heat and those that produce light. Many ideal inferences are also obviated by natural facts, as the torrid zone, supposed to be uninhabitable, is on the contrary a region of rains, and of high mountains covered with perpetual snow.

These reflections arise from the notions concerning the heat of the comet of 1680, which Lambert thus obviates : — " According to Newton's calculations, the strongest heat of the comet of 1680 was two thousand times greater than that of red-hot iron ; and it would have required a period of 50,000 years to cool it down to its former temperature. Something however may be objected to this calculation. " ist. The greatest degree of heat that red-hot iron is capable of acquiring is not so easily determined. All we can know is, that it will scarcely exceed four times the heat of summer. " 2ndly, Newton did not extend his scale far enough on the side of absolute cold ; a body which. would take 50,000 years to cool ought to require the same time to heat it up to that point. " In short, bodies are susceptible of a limited degree of heat only ; and iron once red-hot, if you still continue to expose it to an intense fire, vitrifies and crumbles into ashes.

If then the comet of 1 680 bore a heat two thousand times greater than red-hot iron, it must have consisted of matter entirely different from any we are acquainted with : none of which could have resisted a heat of such astonishing force." over THIS EDITION. VII over her. The whole of those centres then, ought, in respect of the Earth, to occupy a sensible space in the heavens ; at least we have a right to suppose that we ought to see them with the telescope. Nothing but the inconveniences arising from the transmission of light, as detailed above, could inter cept our view of them. For as to their magnitude, it is such as would be necessary to render them visible. " Here then we have all the systems of the universe reduced to order, and enchased in one another. But what is our position amidst those systems ?

Where are we ? As to this point We can speak indefinitely, negatively, and by approximation only. " The Earth is not at the centre of the solar system. The Sun is not at the centre of his system of fixed stars ; a centre which is either in the region of Orion or Sirius. This system is neither at the centre nor in the plane of the Milky Way, though it seems to project over it a little ; the portion of this Way which it approaches the nearest, is that which passes by the colure of Capricorn, where its breadth is double. But where is the Milky Way itself in relation to other Milky Ways ? Here ends all our science with the utmost stretch of our eyes and instruments." It is hoped that the singularity and interesting nature of the subject will excuse these remarks, if rather digressive, and which have been excited by the mention of an author who has contributed to the more accurate projection of maps, and in consequence to the science of geography.