d passed by
Cologne, Frankfort, Fribourg, and Basle to Zurich. Thus far we had
travelled by diligence or posting: we now procured a guide, and
travelled generally on foot. From the 13th to the 31st August we
travelled diligently through the well-known mountainous parts of
Switzerland and arrived at Geneva on the 31st August. Here I saw
M. Gautier, M. Gambard, and the beginning of the Observatory. Mr
Lodge was now compelled to return to Cambridge, and I proceeded alone
by Chambery to Turin, where I made the acquaintance of M. Plana and
saw the Observatory. I then made a tour through north Italy, looking
over the Observatories at Milan, Padua, Bologna, and Florence. At
Leghorn I took a passage for Marseille in a xebeque, but after sailing
for three days the weather proved very unfavourable, and I landed at
Spezia and proceeded by Genoa and the Cornici Road to Marseille. At
Marseille I saw M. Gambart and the Observatory, and passed by Avignon,
Lyons, and Nevers to Orleans, where I visited my old host
M. Legarde. Thence by Paris, Beauvais, and Calais to London and
Cambridge, where I arrived on the 30th October. I had started with
more than _L140_ and returned with _2s. 6d_. The expedition was in
many ways invaluable to me.
"On my return I found various letters from scientific men: some
approving of my method for the mass of the Moon: some approving highly
of my printed observations, especially D. Gilbert, who informed me
that they had produced good effect (I believe at Greenwich), and
Herschel.--On Nov. 13th I gave the Royal Astronomical Society a Paper
about deducing the mass of the Moon from observations of Venus: on
Nov. 16th a Paper to the Cambridge Philosophical Society on a
correction to the length of a ball-pendulum: and on Dec. 14th a Paper
on certain conditions under which perpetual motion is possible.--The
engravings for my Figure of the Earth in the Encyclopaedia
Metropolitana were dispatched at the end of the year. Some of the
Paper (perhaps much) was written after my return from the
Continent.--I began, but never finished, a Paper on the form of the
Earth supposed to be projecting at middle latitudes. In this I refer
to the printed Paper which Nicollet gave me at Paris. I believe that
the investigations for my Paper in the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana led
me to think the supposition unnecessary.--On Nov. 6th I was elected
member of the Geological Society.
"On Nov. 16th 1829 notice was given of a Grace to au
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