xlii APPENDIX.

OBSERVATIONS ON ROAD MEASUREMENTS DEDUCED FROM THE ORDINARY WALKING PACE OF HORSES AND CAMELS.

Independent of the operations for laying down the coast, an account of the various windings of the road travelled by the camels was regularly kept by Lieutenant CoflRn as far as Bengazi.

This was done by observing the direction of their route by compass, and noticing the time they were on the road ; proper deductions being made for stoppages, &c. At the end of each day the courses and distances were collected into a traverse-table, and the latitude and longitude deduced therefrom, as is usual with the D.R, on board ships at sea. If the latitude by these means diflFered from the observation, a proper correction for error in course, distance, or both was made, and the result noted accordingly.

A more favourable opportunity of proving the dependance that may be placed on such a reckoning on land, could not, in all probability, have offered itself ; as the extent of each day’s progress was accurately determined by the means adopted for carrying on the survey. And it may be useful to future travellers, as well as to those persons who may have to compile maps from camel journeys, to insert an abstract of the different days’ works, compared with the latitude and longitude by observations, which will be found annexed.

By this Table it will be seen that the average rate of travelling has not exceeded two miles and ahalf per hour, and that at the end of the journey from Mesurata to Bengazi, a distance of four hundred and twenty-two miles, there is only a difference of 9' in the longitudes. This is an error so small, that there are few persons who would object to the accuracy of the places laid down by the means employed, and yet there are many who would feel inclined to dispute the accuracy of the average rate. But the truth is that, in travelling through coun-