Page 339 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

318 COAST OF NURIA. [CH.

Astronomer Royal, no suspicion can be at­

tached to these. This would reduce the num-
ber of Bruce’s positions, against which on
account of their approximating so closely
to those of Niebuhr, any charge of plagia­
rism can be brought, to three—a proportion
not so great as that exhibited in the table I
have given above; where we shall find, that
out of thirty-seven latitudes which are com­

pared, fourteen agree within the mile, twenty
within two, and twenty-eight within four
miles ; and these observations, it must be
remarked, refer not to the east coast of the
sea alone, where Bruce had the positions of
Niebuhr before him, but are taken indiscrimi­
nately from both sides.
The general accuracy here displayed well
merits our admiration, when we reflect on the
many difficulties which our traveller had to
encounter, deprived as he was of the resources
with which both Niebuhr and those who, after

Bruce appeared on the same field, were amply
provided. A knowledge of these facts is not
only important, as they tend to clear the cha­
racter of a distinguished individual, but of
great interest in a geographical point of view;