Measuring a Meridian is an African tale, first published in 1874 under the cumbrous title The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in South Africa. The story was afterward revised and reissued under its briefer title. It is a hunting story, perhaps Vern's very ablest effort in that line. It has aroused many a youthful sportsman's throbbing eagerness for the chase, has given him his first knowledge and his earliest enthusiasm for the heart-stirring excitement to be found in "hunting big game.