Note 22 — LETTER IV.
Reading edition
No great stress should be laid upon these observations, as the many inconveniences we laboured under, and the little practice we had in such nice operations, must necessarily have rendered them very inaccurate. The Canon Recupero, who was our guide, attended Mess. Glover, Fullerton, and Brydone, up Mount Etna in June 1770. The latter is a very ingenious and accurate observer, and has taken the height of many of the highest mountains in the Alps. His observations, as the Canon informed me, were as follows: At the top of the mountain the quicksilver in the thermometer was 9 degrees below freezing point, when at the foot of the mountain it rose to 76. At the foot of the little mountain that crowns the Volcano the barometer stood at 20° 42/3', half way up this little mountain it was at 19° 6'; but the wind was too violent for them to attempt any more observations. The barometer and thermometer were of Fahrenheit's. Mr. Brydone remarked, as he went up in the night, that he could distinguish the stars in the milky way with wonderful clearness, and that the cold was much more intense than he had ever felt upon the highest mountains of the Alps.