This is the case with the Homeric poems, the ascertainment of the original form of which is a task beyond the powers of criticism.
The successive entries of the moon and planets into the nakshatras (the ascertainment of which was of great astrological importance) were fixed by means of their conjunctions with the yogataras.
The German explorers excavated the Stadium so far as was necessary for the ascertainment of all essential points.
His detection of considerable errors in the tables then in use led him to the conclusion that a more accurate ascertainment of the places of the fixed stars was indispensable to the progress of astronomy; and, finding that Flamsteed and Hevelius had already undertaken to catalogue those visible in northern latitudes, he assumed to himself the task of making observations in the southern hemisphere.
The details vary in the different provinces; but, broadly speaking, a settlement may be described as the ascertainment of the agricultural capacity of the land.
