万物简史 第69期:事物的测定(17)

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比较而言，英国派到各地的18名观测人员所经历的失望就不算一回事。梅森与一位名叫杰里迈亚·狄克逊的年轻测量员搭档，相处得显然不错，两人还结成了持久的伙伴关系。

Their instructions were to travel to Sumatra and chart the transit⁵ there, but after just one night at sea their ship was attacked by a French frigate⁶. (Although scientists were in an internationally cooperative mood, nations weren't.)他们奉命去印度后西迁苏门答腊，在那里绘制凌日图。但他们的船出海的第二天晚上就受到了一条法国护卫舰的攻击。（尽管科学家们处于一种国际合作的心态之中，但国家并非如此。）Mason and Dixon sent a note to the Royal Society observing that it seemed awfully⁷ dangerous on the high seas and wondering if perhaps the whole thing oughtn't to be called off. In reply they received a swift and chilly⁸ rebuke⁹, noting that they had already been paid, that the nation and scientific community were counting on them, and that their failure to proceed would result in the irretrievable loss of their reputations.

梅森和狄克逊给皇家学会发了一封短信，说看来公海上非常危险，不知道整个计划是不是应该取消。他们很快收到一封令人寒心的回信，信中先是对他们一顿臭骂，然后又说他们已经拿了钱，国家和科学界都对他们寄予希望，他们不把计划进行下去就会令国人颜面扫地。

Chastened, they sailed on, but en route word reached them that Sumatra had fallen to the French and so they observed the transit inconclusively from the Cape¹⁰ of Good Hope. On the way home they stopped on the lonely Atlantic outcrop of St. Helena, where they met Maskelyne, whose observations had been thwarted¹¹ by cloud cover. Mason and Maskelyne formed a solid friendship and spent several happy, and possibly even mildly useful, weeks charting tidal flows.

他们改变了想法，继续往前驶去，但途中传来消息说，苏门答腊已经落入法国人之手。因此，他们最终是在好望角观测这次凌日现象的，效果很不好。回国途中，他们来到大西洋一个孤零零的小岛--圣赫勒拿岛上，作了短暂停留，在那里遇上了马斯基林。由于乌云覆盖，马斯基林的观测工作无法进行。梅森和马斯基林建立起了牢固的友谊，一起绘制潮流图，度过了几周快活的，甚至是比较有意义的日子。

 

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