Latitude

“ This, therefore, at any instant defines the position where the sun is vertical; its latitude must equal the sun’s declination and its longitude in time equal the time since noon at Greenwich. Now at distance of 60 m. in every direction on the surface of the earth from the point thus defined the sun will have an altitude of 89° and in all directions at a distance of 1200 m. ”

“ Since (if not certain) it is at least probable, that the latitude itself, or rather the effect of the latitude, can be found (even in very dark weather) much more accurately from that declination alone, than can either the longitude or the effect of the longitude from the variation, though the sun itself is shining brightly or all the stars are visible, with the most skilful employment likewise of all the most exact instruments. ”

“ Respecting the latter, he says, in an inscription on the chart: “On account of which considerations, we have increased gradually the length of the degrees of latitude toward each pole proportionate to the increase of the parallels beyond the length which they have on the globe, relatively to the equator:—“Quibus consideratis, gradus latitudinum versus utrumque polum paulatim auximus pro incremento parallelorum supra rationem quam habint ad acquinoctialem.” ”

“ The Latitude and Longitude of all, or most of, the principal head lands, Bays, etc., may be relied on, for we seldom fail'd of getting an Observation every day to correct our Latitude by, and the Observation for settling the Longitude were no less Numerous, and made as often as the Sun and Moon came in play ”

“ From the latitude of 40° 50' S., to the latitude of 39° 50' S., is nothing but islands and shoals; the land high, rocky, and barren. On the 19th, in the latitude of 40° 30' S., observing breakers about half a mile within shore of us, we sounded, and finding but eight fathoms, immediately hauled off, deepened our water to fifteen fathoms, then bore away and kept along shore again. ”

“ From these two data the length of an arc of a meridian corresponding to a difference of latitude of 1° at once follows. The latitude of a place is the angle which the vertical at the place makes with the equator, or, expressed in a slightly different form, is the angular distance of the zenith from the celestial equator. The vertical at any place may be defined as a direction perpendicular to the surface of still water at the place in question, and may be regarded as perpendicular to the true surface of the earth, accidental irregularities in its form such as hills and valleys being ignored. ”

“ The observations thus far made showed that the changes in latitude were periodic in character, that is, the latitude of any place would increase for a certain length of time and then decrease to a minimum value and so on, continuing to oscillate between certain limits. It is easily seen that such changes in the latitude of any place may be ”

“ We were now to the northward of the line, and every day added to our latitude. The Magellan Clouds, the last sign of South latitude, were sunk in the horizon, and the north star, the Great Bear, and the familiar signs of northern latitudes, were rising in the heavens.
Next to seeing land, there is no sight which makes one realize more that he is drawing near home, than to see the same heavens, under which he was born, shining at night over his head. ”

“ Any object whose true bearing is east or west must be in the same latitude as the place of the observer. Secondly. Any object whose true bearing is north or south must be in the same longitude as the place of the observer. ”

“ As they move north they are continually coming to parts of the globe having smaller circles of latitude than those they have left, and therefore not moved forward as rapidly by the earth's daily rotation as the latitudes nearer the equator. ”

“ When I'm playful I use the meridians of longitude and parallels of latitude for a seine, and drag the Atlantic Ocean for whales! I scratch my head with the lightning, and purr myself to sleep with the thunder! ”

“ To ascertain latitude by itself altitudes of heavenly bodies are measured above the horizon when they are on or near the meridian and therefore exactly or nearly north or south of the observer; in the case of the sun, of course, this means at or near noon, and in the case of other bodies such local times are previously accurately ascertained by a simple calculation made from the Nautical Almanac or more roughly found from an armillary sphere. ”

“ In order that a body will cross the prime vertical, the latitude must be of the same name and greater than the declination. In conditions cited above the declination of the sun is south and the latitude is north, hence the body will never be on the prime vertical. ”

“ While travelling in a northerly or southerly direction, from a station whose latitude is known, and carefully noting the distance and direction travelled, it is only necessary to watch when objects come to the true east or west, and their latitude is obtained. ”

“ Parallels of latitude are small circles parallel to the equator. They constantly diminish in size, as we go from the equator to the pole. The tropics are the parallels of latitude which pass through the solstices. The northern tropic is called the tropic of Cancer; the southern, the tropic of Capricorn. The polar circles are the parallels of latitude that pass through the poles of the ecliptic, at the distance of twenty-three and a half degrees from the poles of the earth.
The elevation of the pole of the heavens above the horizon of any place is always equal to the latitude of the place. ”

“ Thus it is, that throughout the table lands, the geographical position, as far as latitude is concerned, is entirely neutralized by the extreme rarefaction of the atmosphere obtained by ascending through loftier regions. ”

“ An altitude may be taken of any body and after a suitable change in bearing has taken place (not less than 30°) a second altitude may be taken and the first longitude advanced for the run during the interval to the parallel of the latitude by dead reckoning at the time of second sight. ”

“ To the second question it is answered, that the indications from which the existence of living beings is inferred, are found from fifty north latitude, to thirty-seven, and perhaps forty-seven, south latitude. ”

“ When this point is reached, such point will constitute the place and mark for measuring degrees of the sun or of north latitude either, by daily runs measured in leagues, or in any other manner that shall mutually be deemed better. This said line shall be drawn north and south as aforesaid, from the said Arctic pole to the said Ant­ arctic pole. ”

“ “The regions of the North Pole situated within the eighty-fourth degree of north latitude have not yet been utilized, for the very good reason that they have not yet been discovered. ”

“ I remarked constantly, just at sunset, in these latitudes, that the eastern horizon was brilliantly illuminated with a kind of mock sunset. This in a short time disappeared, to be soon succeeded by another similar in character, but more faint. ”

“ Who would have thought that an island of no greater extent than this, situated between the latitude of 54° and 55°, should, in the very height of summer, be in a manner wholly covered, many fathoms deep, with frozen snow, but more especially the S.W. coast? The very sides and craggy summits of the lofty mountains were cased with snow and ice; but the quantity which lay in the valleys is incredible; and at the bottom of the bays the coast was terminated by a wall of ice of considerable height. ”

“ At noon we were in latitude 67° 6′ S., longitude 9° W., magnetic dip 62° 42′ S., variation 8° 12′ W. The evening was fine, and with a fresh breeze from S.E. we made good progress to the S.W., passing only a few bergs and some straggling pieces of ice. The stars shone with great brilliancy during the night, a sight we had not witnessed for a long time, having been obscured during the last month by almost continual fog and snow; indeed, there were only three days in which we were not assailed by snow showers. ”

“ Range behind range of great mountains lie below, like a Titanic ocean stilled by some mighty hand. From this supreme elevation it is possible to study the structural character of the region, and to count all the great chains that cross the country, while no words can express the varying and exquisite color that, like a glamour of heavenly enchantment, lies over the wide expanse. The whole earth, “and the beauty thereof,” seems to be spread out at one’s feet, and the airs that come to this high mountain crest are full of freshness and balm. ”

“ When, after a weary climb, we find ourselves on the summit of a lofty mountain, and look back from that commanding altitude over the ground we have traversed, what is it that we behold? The minor details of the scenery, many of which seemed large and important to us as we passed, are now lost to view, and we see only the great and imposing features of the landscape, the high elevations, the town-studded valleys, the deep and winding streams, the broad forests. ”

“ The sky was charged with large and heavy clouds; and a broad, deep, and as it were stormy, tint of dark purple ... mantled every mountain which we saw--with the exception of our old gigantic friend, of which the summit was buried in the clouds. At a given distance, you form a tolerably good notion of the altitude of mountains; and from this latter view of those in question, I should think that the highest may be about 3000 feet above the level of the lake. ”

“ Altitude is ever refreshing. The dust-filled, noise-crowded air is far below. From these scenic mountain heights one commands a new world of mountainous cloud-scenery in the sky. Grand, deep, blue gorges lie open in the cloud plateaus and mountains. To the enraptured eye the shifting clouds sometimes become continents and islands, real lands where people live, landscapes upon whose sunny hills and forested mountains shadows of other clouds fall, and across whose expanding plains many winding rivers run. ”

“ From the summit, at an altitude of seventy-four hundred feet, we had a vast panorama of lake, forest, and mountain—but I might be accused of48 monotonous repetition were I to endeavor to describe even a few of the scenes that enchanted us. Every hilltop, every bend in the road, and every opening through the forests that lined our way presented views which, taken alone, might well delight the beholder for hours—only their frequent recurrence tended to make them almost commonplace to us. ”

“ Here may the eye, as it sweeps along the horizon, embrace a line of snowclad mountains such as exist in no other part of the world, stretching over one third of the entire circle, at a distance of forty or fifty miles, their peaks towering over a sea of intervening ranges piled one behind another, whose extent on either hand is lost in the remote distance, and of which the nearest rises from a gulf far down beneath the spectator's feet, where may be seen the silver line that marks a river's course, or crimson fields of amaranth and the dwellings of man. ”

“ At an altitude of 6,193 feet, or more than a mile and one-fifth above sea-level, the line of vision bounds a circle nearly a thousand miles in circumference; and within that circle are lakes, rivers, mountains, valleys, dark forests, smiling villages, and in fact a variety of scenery, ever changing as the gaze is [88]
[89] directed to the different points of the compass. In a clear day, the distant glimmer of the Atlantic may be seen, away to the southeast. ”

“ Notwithstanding this representation, and the fact that the peak in question was seen by ourselves at the distance of one hundred and thirty miles, we are inclined to the opinion, that in point of elevation, it falls far below many portions of the interior ridges of the mountains which are visible from its summit, and from the plains of the Platte, and that it is by standing a little detached from the principal group of the mountains, it acquires a great portion of the imposing grandeur of its appearance. ”

“ When seen from high altitudes, a mountain appears merely as a part of a vast panorama or a single element in a wild, limitless scene of desolate peaks, which raise their bare, bleak summits among the sea of mountains far up into the cold regions of the atmosphere, where they become white with eternal snow, and bound by rigid glaciers. ”

“ Forests, hills, and mountains followed after, as our altitude was increased, blending together like a hazy landscape, until, on passing above the cloud region, and finding the level of our track, the earth was wholly lost to our view, and our course lay through the blue serene of space, without a lighthouse or a landmark, and nothing but the constant lamps of heaven to guide us in our passage. ”

“ The far mountain lifts its peak in glory, bathed in the radiance of the rising or the setting sun. Its rugged sides are softened by the distance. A nearby view dicloses only the common rock and brush and withered grass and sun-baked earth ”

“ In extensive continents the land may, by gradual elevation, attain great height, without any other appearance than that of a plane gently inclined, and if a hill placed upon such raised ground be described, as having its altitude equal to the whole space above the sea, the representation will be fallacious.
These mountains may be properly enough measured from the inland base; for it is not much above the sea. ”

“ And when they came again, one set forth this: "If it seem difficult to look at life in the big, close-at-hand, because the detail mountains seem to obstruct the view; then we must get altitude, so that these mountains, no matter how near, may dwindle to mole-hills at our feet, and our horizon stretch beyond the ends of the earth." ”

“ The whole panorama of valley, mountain, glacier, and snow has an effect, at an elevation, of majestic repose. The observers were far above the noises of avalanches and rivers and nature’s forces were reduced to mere insignificance as they gazed thousands of feet below them upon the scenery. Many of the mountains they saw had not before been seen by human eye. ”