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Updated: May 31, 2025
Father Gumilla himself; whom Bouguer met at Carthagena, confessed that he had been deceived; and he read to Father Gili, a short time before his death, a supplement to his history of the Orinoco, intended for a new edition, in which he recounts pleasantly the manner in which he had been undeceived.
It is that of Santa Fée de Bogota; a fertile plain estimated at 1600 toises, almost about two miles above the level of the sea; and which pours its water into the valley of the Madelena about a degree above Honda, which is mentioned by M. Bouguer as giving so fine an example of those water-worn rocks.
Accordingly, three astronomers, Godin, Bouguer, and La Condamine, made the journey to a spot on the equator in Peru, while four astronomers, Camus, Clairaut, Maupertuis, and Lemonnier, made a voyage to a place selected in Lapland. The result of these expeditions was the determination that the globe is oblately spheroidal.
Commander Bouguer approached the animal and attacked it with blows from harpoons and blasts from rifles, but without much success because bullets and harpoons crossed its soft flesh as if it were semiliquid jelly. After several fruitless attempts, the crew managed to slip a noose around the mollusk's body. This noose slid as far as the caudal fins and came to a halt.
We have a remarkable example of this in the view which M. de Bouguer has taken of a singular appearance which he met with, perhaps more interesting to the present Theory than almost any other of which we know.
Story of the Heavens, 2nd edition, p. 525, et seq. A series of researches made by Zöllner, of Leipzig, led him to assign to the light-reflecting capacity of the full-moon a result intermediate between that obtained by Bouguer, which gave a brightness equal to 1/300000 part of that of the sun, and of Wollaston, which gave 1/801070 part.
The Toise du Châtelet, notwithstanding its evident faults, was employed for nearly a hundred years; in 1766 it was replaced by the Toise du Pérou, so called because it had served for the measurements of the terrestrial arc effected in Peru from 1735 to 1739 by Bouguer, La Condamine, and Godin.
Bouguer relates, that when he reached the summit of Montagne Pelee, in the island of Martinique, he and his companions shivered with cold, though the heat was above 21.5 degrees.
Bouguer, relying on theoretical considerations, was of opinion that, according to the constitution of our atmosphere, mountains seen negatively cannot be perceived at distances exceeding 35 leagues. It is important here to observe, that these calculations are contrary to experience. The peak of Teneriffe has been often seen at the distance of 36, 38, and even at 40 leagues.
Till that period no traveller had undertaken to describe New Grenada; and the public, except in Spain, knew the navigation of the Magdalena only by some lines traced by Bouguer. That learned traveller had descended the river from Honda; but, being in want of astronomical instruments, he had ascertained but four or five latitudes, by means of small dials hastily constructed.
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