Georges Louis Leclerc De

Buffon

BUFFON's NATURAL HISTORY

PROOF OF THE THEORY OF THE EARTH.

ARTICLE XI.

OF SEAS AND LAKES.

The ocean surrounds the earth on all sides, and penetrates into the interior

parts of different countries, often by large openings, and frequently by small

straits; it forms mediterranean seas, some of which participate of its motions

of flux and reflux, and others seem to have nothing in common with it except

the continuity of water. We shall follow the ocean through all its extent and

windings, enumerating at the same time all the mediterranean seas, and

endeavour to distinguish them from those which should be only called bays,

or gulphs, and lakes.

The sea which washes the western coasts of France forms a gulph between

Spain and Britain; this gulph, which mariners call the Bay of Biscay, is very

open, and the point which projects farthest inland is between Bayonne and

St. Sebastian; another great projection is between Rochelle and Rochefort:

this gulph begins at Cape Ortegal, and ends at Brest, where a strait

commences between the south point of Britain and Cape Lizard. This strait,

which at first is very large, forms a small gulph in Normandy, the most

projecting point of which is at Auranche; it continues pretty broad until it

comes to the channel at the foot of Calais, where it is very narrow; afterwards

it grows broader on a sudden, and ends between the Texel and the coast of

England at Norwich; at the Texel it forms a small mediterranean sea, called

Zuyder-zee, and many other great canals, which are not very deep.

After that the ocean forms a great gulph called the German Ocean; it begins

at the northern point of Scotland, runs along the eastern coast of Scotland

and England as far as Norwich, from thence to the Texel, along the coasts of

Holland and Germany, Jutland, Norway, and above Bergen. This gulph

might be taken for a mediterranean sea, because the Orkney islands partly

shut up its opening, and seem to be directed as if they were a continuation

of the mountains of Norway. It forms a large strait, which begins at the

southern point of Norway, and continues very broad to the Island of

Zetland, where it narrows all at once, and forms between the coasts of

Sweden, the islands of Denmark and Jutland, four small straits; after which

it widens to a small gulph, the most projecting point of which is at Lubec:

from thence it continues pretty broad to the southern extremity of Sweden,

when it grows broader and broader, and forms the Baltic Sea, which is a

mediterranean, extending from south to north near 300 leagues,

comprehending the gulph of Bothnia, which is in fact only a continuation of

it. This sea has two more gulphs, that of Livonia, whose most projecting

point is near Mittau and Riga, and that of Finland, which is an arm of the

Baltic, extending between Livonia and Finland to Petersburgh, and

communicating with the lake Ladoga, and even with the lake Onega, which

communicates by the river Onega to the White Sea. All this extent of water,

which forms the Baltic Sea, the gulphs of Bothnia, Finland, and Livonia, must

be looked upon as one great lake, supported by a great number of rivers

which it receives, as the Oder, the Vistula, the Niemen, the Droine, in

Germany and Poland; other rivers in Livonia and Finland; others still

greater, which come from Lapland, Tornea, the Calis, Lula, Pithea, Uma, and

many others that come from Sweden. These rivers, which are very large, are

more than 40, including the rivers they receive, which cannot fail of

producing a quantity of water sufficient to support the Baltic. Besides, this

sea has no flux nor reflux, although it is very narrow and very salt. If we

consider also the bearing of the country, and the number of lakes and

morasses in Finland and Sweden, we shall be inclined to look on it not as a

sea, but as a great lake formed by the abundance of waters from the adjacent

lands, and which has forced a passage near Denmark into the ocean, where

in fact, according to the account of mariners, they still continue to flow.

From the beginning of the gulph which forms the German Sea, and which

terminates above Bergen, the ocean follows the coasts of Norway, Swedish

Lapland, North Lapland, and Muscovy Lapland, at the eastern part of which

it forms a large strait, which borders a mediterranean called the White Sea,

which may be likewise regarded as a great lake; for it receives 12 or 13 rivers,

all very considerable, and which are more than sufficient to support it; its

water is but a little salt. Besides, in many parts it is very near communicating

with the Baltic Sea; it has even a real one with the gulph of Finland, for, by

ascending the river Onega, we come to a lake of the same name; from this

lake Onega there are two rivers of communication with the lake Ladoga; this

last communicates by a large arm with the gulph of Finland; and there are

many parts in Swedish Lapland, the waters of which run almost

indifferently either into the White Sea, or the gulphs of Bothnia and Finland;

and all this country being full of lakes and morasses, the Baltic and White

Seas seem to be the receptacles of its waters, and which afterwards discharge

themselves into the Frozen and German Sea.

Quitting the White Sea, and coasting the island of Candenos and the

northern coasts of Russia, the ocean forms a small arm in the land at the

mouth of the river Petzora. This arm, which is about 40 leagues long, by 8 or

10 broad, is rather a mass of water formed by the river than a gulph of the

sea, and also has but little saltness. The land there forms a projecting cape,

terminated by the small islands of Maurice and of Orange; and between this

promontory and the lands which border the Strait of Waigat to the south,

there is a small gulph about 30 leagues depth inland. This gulph belongs to

the ocean, and is not formed by the land waters. We afterwards meet with

Waigat's Strait, which is nearly under the 70th degree of north latitude. This

strait is not more than 8 or 10 leagues long, and communicates with the sea

which waters the northern coasts of Siberia. As this strait is shut up by the

ice the greatest part of the year, it is very difficult to get into the sea beyond

it. The passage has been attempted in vain by a great number of navigators,

and those who fortunately passed it have left us no exact charts of that sea,

which they have termed the Pacific Ocean. All that appears by the most

recent charts, and by Senex's globe of 1739, is, that this sea might be entirely

mediterranean, and not communicating with the great sea of Tartary, for it

appears to be enclosed and bounded on the south by the country of the

Samoides, which is at present well known, and which extends from the

Straits of Waigat to the river Jenisca; on the east it is bounded by Jelmorland,

on the west by Nova Zembla; and although we are not acquainted with the

extent of this sea to the north and north-east, yet as there does not appear

any interruption of the lands, there is great probability of its being only a

mediterranean, and bounded by land on that side: what indeed proves this

is, that by leaving Waigat's Strait you may coast Nova-Zembla all along its

western and northern coasts as far as Cape Desire; that after having past this

cape, keeping along the coast to the east of Nova Zembla, you arrive at a

small gulph, which is about the 75th country of Jelmorland was discovered

in 1664, which is only a few leagues distant from Nova Zembla, so that the

only land which has not yet been discovered is a small spot near this little

gulph; and this part is perhaps not thirty leagues long; so that if the Pacific

Sea communicated with the ocean it must be at this little gulph, which is the

only way by which they can join; and as this small gulph is in the 75th

degree, even if the communication should exist, we must always keep five

degrees towards the north to gain the great sea. It is evident, therefore, that

if we would acquire the northern route to China, it would be much better to

pass by the north of Nova Zembla, at the 77th or 78th degree, where the sea

is more open, and has less ice, than to attempt the road through the icy strait

of Waigat, with the uncertainty of getting out of this sea, which there is so

much reason to believe mediterranean.

By following, therefore, the ocean along the coasts of Nova Zembla and

Jelmorland, these lands are discoverable as far as the mouth of Chotanga,

which is about the 73d degree, beyond which there is an unknown coast of

about 200 leagues: we have only an account of them from the Muscovites,

who have travelled by land into those climates; they state the country to be

uninterrupted, have marked out the rivers in their charts, and called the

people populi palati. This interval of coasts, still unknown, extends from the

mouth of Chotanga to that of Kauvoina, in the 66th degree of latitude; the

ocean there forms a bay, whose most projecting point in land is at the mouth

of the Len, which is a very considerable river. This bay is very open, belongs

to the Tartarian sea, and is called the Linchidolin, where the Muscovites have

a whale fishery.

From the mouth of the Len we may follow the coasts of Tartary more than

500 leagues towards the east, to a peninsula inhabited by the Schelates. This

is the most northern extremity of Tartary, and is situate about the 72d degree

of latitude. In this 500 leagues the ocean makes no interruption by bays nor

arms, only a considerable elbow from the peninsula of the Schelates to the

mouth of the river Korvinea. This point of land also forms the eastern

extremity of the old continent, and whose western is at Cape North in

Lapland; so that the old continent has about 1700 leagues northern coasts,

comprehending the sinuosities of the bays, from Cape North in Lapland to

the farthest point of land belonging to the Schelates, and about 1100 leagues

in a straight line.

Let us now take a view of the eastern coasts of the old continent, beginning

at the farthest point of land which the Schelates inhabit, and descending

towards the equator. The ocean at first forms an elbow between the country

of the Schelates, and the land inhabited by the people called Tschutschi,

which projects a considerable way into the sea. To the south of this island it

forms a small bay, called the Bay of Suctoikret, and afterwards another

smaller bay, which projects like an arm 40 or 50 miles into Kamtschatka; the

ocean then enters into the land by a long strait, filled with many small

Islands between the southern point of Kamtschatka and the northern point

of Jesso, and forms a great mediterranean, which it is proper we should now

trace throughout. The first is the sea of Kamtschatka, in which is a very

considerable island, called Amour, or Love Island. This sea has an arm to the

north-east; but this arm, and the sea of Kamtschatka itself, might possibly

be, at least in part, formed by the rivers, which run therein, from the lands

of Kamtschatka and from Tartary. Be this as it will, the sea of Kamtschatka

communicates with the sea of Corea, which makes the second part of this

mediterranean; and all this sea, which is more than 600 leagues in length, is

bounded upon the west and north by Corea and Tartary, and on the east and

south by Kamtschatka, Jesso, and Japan, without having any other

communication with the ocean than that of the fore-mentioned strait, for it

is not certain whether that which is set down in some maps between Japan

and Jesso really exists; and even if this strait does exist, the sea of

Kamtschatka and Corea will still be regarded as forming a great

mediterranean, divided from the ocean on every side, and could not be taken

for a bay, for it has no direct communication with the ocean by its southern

strait, but with the sea of China, which is rather a mediterranean than a

gulph of the ocean.

It has been observed in the preceding article, that the sea has a constant

motion from east to west; and that consequently the great Pacific Sea made

continual efforts against the eastern countries; an attentive inspection of the

globe will confirm the consequences which we have drawn from this

observation; for from Kamtschatka to New Britain, discovered in 1700 by

Dampier, and which is the 4th or 5th degree in the south latitude, the ocean

appears to have washed away part of the land on these coasts for upwards

of 400 leagues, and consequently the eastern bounds of the old continent

formerly extended much farther than at present; for it is remarkable, that

New Britain and Kamtschatka, which are the most projecting lands towards

the east, are under the same meridian. All countries have their greatest

extent from north to south. Kamtschatka reaches at least 160 leagues from

north to south, and that point which is washed by the Pacific Sea on the east,

and on the other by the mediterranean sea above mentioned, is divided in

the direction, from north to south by a chain of mountains.

After these the lands of Jesso and Japan form another extent of land, whose

direction is also north and south, extending upwards of 400 leagues,

between the Great Sea and that of Corea. The chain of mountains of Jesso,

and of Japan, cannot fail of being directed from north to south, since these

lands, which are 400 leagues in this direction, are not more than 50 or 60

from east to west. Therefore the lands of Kamtschatka, Jesso, and the eastern

part of Japan, must be regarded as contiguous, and directed from north to

south. Still pursuing the same direction, after having passed Cape Ava at

Japan, we meet with the island of Barnevelt, and three other islands, which

are placed in the direction of north and south, and extend about 100 leagues.

We afterwards meet with three other islands, called the islands of Callanos,

then the Ladrones, which are fourteen or fifteen in number, all placed in the

same direction from north to south, and all together occupying a space of

more than 300 leagues in this direction, by so trifling a breadth, that its

greatest does not exceed seven or eight leagues from east to west. It therefore

appears to me that Kamtschatka, Jesso, eastern Japan, the islands of

Barnevelt, the Callanos, and the Ladrones, are only the same chain of

mountains, and the remains of an old country, which the ocean has at one

time covered and gradually retired from. All these countries in fact appear

to be only mountains, and the islands to be their points or peaks, while the

low lands are covered with the ocean. What is related in Lettres Edifiantes,

appears, to be true, and that in fact a quantity of islands have been

discovered, called the new Philippine Islands, and that their position is really

such as is given by Father Gobien; and it cannot be doubted but that the most

eastern of these islands are a continuation of the chain of mountains which

forms the Ladrones, for these eleven eastern islands are all placed in the

same direction from north to south, occupying a space of more than 200

leagues in length, the broadest of which is not more than 7 or 8 leagues from

east to west.

But if these conjectures are thought too presumptuous, on account of the

great intervals between the islands bordering on Cape Ava, Japan, and the

Callanos, and between these islands and the Ladrones, and between the

Ladrones and the new Philippines, the first of which is in fact about 160

leagues, the second 50 or 60, and the third near 120, I shall answer that the

chains of mountains often extend much farther under the waters of the sea,

and that these intervals are small in comparison of the extent of land which

these mountains in the above direction present, which is 1100 leagues,

computing them from the interior part of Kamtschatka. In short, if we wholly

reject this idea, as to the quantity of land the ocean must have gained on the

eastern coasts of the continent, and on that suit of mountains, still it must be

allowed that Kamtschatka, Jesso, Japan, the islands Bonga, Tanaxima, those

of Great Lequeo, King's Island, Formosa, Vaif, Basha, Babuyane, Lucca,

Mindano, Gilolo, &c. and lastly, Guinea, which extends to New Britain, and

is situate under the same meridian as Kamtschatka, do not form a

continuation of land of more than 2200 leagues, interrupted only by small

intervals, the greatest of which perhaps is not more than 20 leagues, so that

the ocean has formed in the lands of the eastern continent a great bay, which

commences at Kamtschatka and ends at New Britain. This bay is

interspersed with many islands, and has every appearance of having been

gained from the land, consequently we may suppose, with some probability,

that the ocean, by its constant motion from east to west, has by degrees

acquired this extent on the eastern continent, and has formed

mediterraneans, such as Kamtschatka, Corea, China, and perhaps all the

Archipelago; for the earth and sea are there so blended that it evidently

appears to be an inundated country, of which we only see the eminences and

high lands, while the lower are hid under the waters of the ocean. This

supposition appears to be in some measure confirmed by the water being

more shallow than in other seas, and the innumerable islands resembling the

tops of mountains.

If we particularly examine these seas, we shall find the sea of China forms a

very deep bay in its northern part, which commences at the island of

Fungma, and terminates at the frontier of the province of Pekin, about 50

leagues distance from that capital of the Chinese empire. This bay, in its most

interior and narrowest part, is called the Gulph of Changi. It is very probable

that this gulph, and a part of the sea of China, have been formed by the

ocean, which has submerged all the ancient country, of which only the

islands before-mentioned are now to be seen. In this southern part are the

bays of Tonquin and Siam, near which is the peninsula of Malacco, formed

by a long chain of mountains, whose direction is from north to south, and

the Andaman islands, another chain of mountains in the same direction, and

which appear to be only a succession of the mountains of Sumatra.

The ocean afterwards forms the great Gulph of Bengal, in which we may

remark, that the peninsula of Indus forms a concave curb towards the east,

nearly like the great bay of the eastern continent, which seems to have been

also produced by the same motion of the ocean from east to west. In this

peninsula are the mountains of Gates, which have a direction from north to

south, as far as Cape Comorin, and the Island of Ceylon seems to have been

separated from this part of the continent. The Maldiva islands are only

another chain of mountains, whose direction is also the same. After these

follows the Arabian Gulph, which sends out four arms into the country; the

two greatest on the western side, and the two smallest on the east. The first

of these arms on the east side is the Bay of Cambaia, which is not above 50

or 60 leagues in length: this receives two very considerable rivers, viz. the

Tapti and the Baroche, which Pietro de Valle calls the Mehi: the second arm,

towards the east, is famous for the velocity and height of its tides, which are

greater than in any other part of the world, and which extends for more than

50 leagues. Many rivers fall into this gulph, as the Indus, the Padar, &c.

which have brought so great a quantity of earth and mud to their mouths as

to raise the bottom almost to a level, the inclination of which is so gentle, that

the tide extends to a very great distance. The first arm on the west side in the

Persian Gulph, which spreads more than 250 leagues on the land; and the

second is the Red Sea, which extends more than 680, computing it from the

island Socotora. These two arms should be regarded as two mediterranean

seas, taking them from beyond the straits of Ormuz and Babelmandel: they

are both subject to the tides, but this is occasioned by their being so near the

equator, where the motion of the tides is much greater than in any other

climate; and besides they are both very long and narrow. The motion of the

tides is more rapid in the Red Sea than in the Persian Gulph, because the Red

Sea is near three times longer and quite as narrow. The Red Sea does not

receive any river whose motion might oppose the tides, whereas the Persian

Gulph receives three very considerable ones in its most projecting extremity.

It appears very apparently that the Red Sea has been formed by an eruption

of the ocean, for the bearing of the lands are exactly similar, the coasts on

each side of the straits follow the same direction,, and evidently appear to

have been cut by waters.

At the extremity of the Red Sea is that famous neck of land called the Isthmus

of Suez, which forms a barrier to the Red Sea, and prevents its

communication with the Mediterranean. In a preceding article we noticed

the reasons which inclined us to think that the Red Sea is higher than the

Mediterranean, and that if the Isthmus of Suez was cut, an inundation and

an augmentation of the latter might ensue. To which we shall subjoin, that if

even it should not be agreed that the Red Sea is higher than the

Mediterranean, it cannot be denied that there is neither flux nor reflux in the

Mediterranean, adjoining to the mouths of the Nile; and that, on the

contrary, in the Red Sea the tides are very considerable, and raise the water

several feet, which circumstance alone would suffice to send a quantity of

water into the Mediterranean if the Isthmus was broken. Besides, we have

an example on this subject quoted by Varenius, who says in page 100 of his

Geography: "Oceanus Germanicus, qui est Atlantici pars, inter Frisiam &

Hollandium se effundens, efficit sinum, qui et si parvis sit respectu

celebrium sinum maris, tamen & ipse dicitur mare, alluitque Hollandiæ

emporium celeberrimum, Amstelodamum. Non procul inde abest lacus

Harlemensis, qui etiam mare Harlemense dicitur. Hujus altitudo non est

minor altitudine sinus illius Belgici, quem diximus & mittit ramum ad

urbem Leidam, ubi in varias fossas divaricatur. Quoniam itaque nec lacus

his, neque sinus ille Hollandici maris inundant adjacentes agros (de naturali

constitutione loquor, non ubi tempestatibus urgentur, propter quas aggeres

facti sunt) pater inde, quod non sint altiores quam agri Hollandiæ. At vero

Oceanum Germanicum esse altiorem quam terras hasce, experti sunt

Leidenses, cum suscepissent fossam seu alveum ex urbe sua ad Oceani

Germanici littora, prope Cattorum vicum perducere (distantia est duorum

milliarum) ut, recepto per alveum hunc mari, possent navigationem

instituere in Oceanum Germanicum, & hinc in varias terræ regiones.

Verumenimvero cum magnam jam alvei port em perfecissent, desistere

coacti sunt, quoniam turn demum per observationem cognitem est, Oceani

Germanici aquam esse altiorem quam agrum inter Leidam et litus Oceani

istius; unde locus ille, ubi fodere desierunt dicitur, Het malle Gat. Oceanus

itaque Germanicus est aliquantum altior quam sinus ille Hollandicus, &c."

Therefore, as the German Sea is higher than that of Holland, there is no

reason why we should not believe the Red Sea may be higher than the

Mediterranean. Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus speak of a canal of

communication between the Nile, the Mediterranean, and the Red Sea, and

M. Del'isle published a map in 1704, in which he traces one end of a canal to

the most eastern part of the Nile, and which he judges to be a part of that

which formerly joined the Nile with the Red Sea.

In the third part of a book entitled, "Connoisance de l'Ancien Monde, or the

Knowledge of the Old World," printed in 1707, we meet with the like

sentiment; and it is there said, from Diodorus Siculus, that it was Neco, King

of Egypt, who began this canal, that Darius, King of Persia, continued it, and

that it was finished by Ptolemy II. who conducted it as far as the city Arsinoe,

and that it could be opened and shut when they found it needful. Without

desiring to deny these circumstances, I must own, that to me they appear

doubtful. I do not know whether the violence and height of the tide in the

Red Sea, would not be necessarily communicated to this canal; it appears to

me, at least, that it would have required great precautions to confine the

waters, to avoid inundations and to preserve this canal in good repair.

Though historians assert that this canal was undertaken and finished, yet

they do not tell us the length of its duration; and the remains which are

pretended to be even now perceptible, are perhaps all that was ever done of

it. The name of the Red Sea has been given to this arm of the ocean, because

it has the appearance of that colour in every part where corals, or

madrepores, are met with at the bottom. In the Histoire General des

Voyages, vol. i. pages 198 and 199, it is said, "Before he quitted the Red Sea,

D. Jean examined what might have been the reason why that name was

given to it by the ancients, and if, in fact, this sea differed from others in its

colour. He knew that Pliny had given several opinions on the origin of this

name. Some derived it from a King named Erythros, who reigned in those

parts, and which, in the Greek language, signifies red. Others imagined that

the reflection of the sun produces a reddish colour on the surface of the

water, and others that the water was naturally red. The Portuguese, who had

made several voyages to the entrance of the straits, asserted that all the coasts

of Arabia were very red, and that the sand and dust which the wind carries

into the sea, tinged the water of the same colour.

"D. Jean, who examined the nature of the water, and the qualities of the

coasts as far as Suez, asserts, that far from being naturally red, the water is

of the same colour as in other seas, and that the sand and the dust having

nothing red in themselves could not give this tinge to the water. The earth

of both countries, he says, is generally brown; it is even black in some places,

and in others white. On the coasts of Suaquem, where the Portuguese had

not penetrated, he saw three mountains streaked with red, but they were of

a very hard rock, and the neighbouring country was of the common colour.

"The truth is, that this sea is throughout of an uniform colour, which is easy

to be demonstrated; but it must also be owned, that in some parts it appears

to be red through chance, and in others green and white; the explanation of

which phenomena is as follows: From Suaquem to Kossir, that is, for the

space of 136 leagues, the sea is filled with shoals and rocks of coral; this name

is given to them, by reason that their form and colour render them so

extremely like coral, that it requires great circumspection not to be deceived.

There are two sorts of them, the one white and the other red; in many parts

they are covered with a kind of gum, or glue, of a green, and in others with

a deep orange. Now the water of this sea is so transparent that the bottom

may be seen at 20 fathoms deep, especially from Suaquem to the extremity

of the gulph; it appears, therefore, to take the colour of the matters it covers;

as for example, when the rocks are covered with a green gum, the water

above appears of a deeper green than the rocks themselves; and when the

bottom is only sand, the water appears white: so likewise when the rocks are

coral, the water seems to be tinged with red; and as these last coloured rocks

are more frequently met with there than any other, D. Jean concludes, that

the name of the Red Sea was affixed to the Arabian Gulph in preference to

the Green or White. He applauds himself on this discovery, because the

method by which he ascertained it left him no room for doubt. He caused a

float to be moored against the rocks in the parts which were not deep enough

to permit vessels to approach them, and the sailors could often execute his

orders with facility, without the sea being higher than the stomach at more

than half a league from the rocks. The greatest part of the stones and pebbles

they drew up, in those parts where the water appeared red, was also of that

colour: in the water which appeared green, the stones were green, and if the

water appeared white, the bottom was white sand, without any other

mixture."

The direction of the coast of the Red Sea, from Cape Gordafu to the Cape of

Good Hope, is pretty equal; in the course of which there are no bays,

excepting an arm on the coast of Melinda, that might be supposed as

belonging to a large one provided the island of Madagascar joined the

continent, which most probably was formerly the case, notwithstanding it is

now divided by the straits of Mosambique. The coast bears the same

direction from the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Negro on the west side of

Africa; it has the appearance of being a chain of high mountains, extends

about 500 leagues, but contains scarcely any rivers of importance. Beyond

Cape Negro however the land is much lower, and is supplied by several

considerable rivers beside the Coanza and the Zaire; and between that and

Cape Gonsalvez, which is computed to be about 420 leagues, there are the

mouths of no less than twenty-four large rivers; from this last Cape to Cape

Trois-pointes it is an open bay, in about the centre of which is a considerable

projection called Cape Formosa. On the southern side are the islands

Fernanda, St. Thomas, and the Prince's Island, and which there is reason to

suspect are part of a chain of mountains from Rio del Rey to the river Jamoer.

The water turns somewhat into the land between Cape Trois-pointes to Cape

Palmas, from the latter of which it is an open sea to Cape Tangrin; beyond

this Cape there is a small bay towards Sierra Leona, and another in which

are the islands of Bisagas. We then come to a considerable projection into the

ocean called Cape Verd; of which the islands of that name are supposed to

be a continuation, although it is more probable they are so of Cape Blanc,

which is both higher and extends farther into the sea. From Cape Blanc to

Cape Bajador is a mountainous and hard coast to which the Canary Islands

seem to belong.

Turning from Africa we find an open bay extending to Portugal, and in

about the centre of which are the straits of Gibraltar, through which the

water runs with great rapidity into the Mediterranean, which flows almost

900 leagues into the interior part of land, and is the cause of many curious

circumstances; 1st, it has no tides, at least that are visible, excepting in the

Gulph of Venice and what are almost imperceptible at Marseilles and at

Tripoli; 2dly, it surrounds a number of extensive islands, for instance,

Sardinia, Sicily, Corsica, Cyprus, Majorca, and Italy, which is the largest

known. It has also a fertile Archipelago; indeed it is from the Mediterranean

Archipelago, that all collections of islands have been so denominated; this

indeed has the appearance of belonging more to the Black Sea than the

Mediterranean; nor is it in the least unlikely that Greece was at one time

covered with the waters of the Black Sea, which empties itself into the

Marmora, and from thence finds its way into the Mediterranean.

Some have asserted there was a double current in the Straits of Gibraltar, the

one superior, which carries the water of the ocean into the Mediterranean,

and the other inferior, which carries them in the contrary direction; but this

opinion is evidently false, and contrary to the laws of hydrostatics: it has

likewise been asserted to be the case in many other places, as in the

Bosphorus, the strait of Sund, &c. and Marsilli relates even experiments

made in the Bosphorus, to prove the truth of these opposite currents; but the

experiments must have been badly made, since the matter is totally

repugnant to the nature and motions of the waters; besides Greaves in his

Pyramidography, page 101 and 102, proves, by able experiments, that there

is no such thing as a current in the Bosphorus, whose direction is opposite

to the superior: what may have deceived Marsilli and others, is possibly the

circumstance, that in the Bosphorus, the Straits of Gibraltar, and in all rivers

which flow with rapidity, there is a considerable eddy along the shores, the

direction of which is generally contrary to the principal current of the waters.

Let us now shortly trace all the coasts of the new continent. Cape Hold-with-

Hope, lying in the 73d degree north latitude, is the most northern land we

are acquainted with in New Greenland, and is not above 160 or 180 leagues

distant from Cape North in Lapland. From this cape we may follow the coast

of Greenland as far as the polar circle, where the ocean forms a broad strait

between Iceland and Greenland. It is pretended that this country, adjacent

to Iceland, is not the ancient Greenland which the Danes formerly possessed

as a province dependant on their kingdom; for in that there were civilized

Christians, who had bishops, churches, and several towns wherein they

carried on their commerce. The Danes also visited it frequently, and as easily

as the Spaniards can go to the Canaries: there still exists, as it is asserted,

laws and ordinances for the government of this province, and those not very

ancient: nevertheless, without attempting to divine how this country became

absolutely lost, it is certain not the least trace of what we have related is to

be met with in New Greenland. The people are wild and savage; there is no

vestiges of any edifice; nor have they a word in their language which has an

affinity with the Danish; in short, there is nothing which might give us room

to judge that this is the same country. It is even almost a desert, and

surrounded with ice for the greatest part of the year. But as these lands are

of a vast extent, and as the coasts have been but little frequented by modern

navigators, they may have missed the spot where the descendants of these

polished people inhabit; or the ice having become more abundant in this sea,

may prevent any approach to the shore near them: nevertheless, if we can

rely on maps, this whole country has been coasted, and according to them it

forms nearly a peninsula, and at the extremity of which are the two straits of

Forbishers and of Friesland, where it is extremely cold, although they are not

higher than the Orkneys, that is, at 60 degrees.

Between the west coast of Greenland and that of Labrador, the ocean forms

a gulph, and afterwards a large mediterranean, which is the coldest of all

seas, and the coasts of which are pot perfectly known. By following this tract

due north, we come to Davis's Strait, which leads to the Christian Sea, and

is terminated by Baffin's Bay, which has the appearance of forming a kind of

road into Hudson's Bay. Cumberland Strait, which as well as Davis's may

lead to the Christian Sea, is narrower and more liable to be frozen: that of

Hudson, though much more to the south, is also frozen during one part of

the year. A very strong motion of the tide has been remarked in these straits,

which is quite contrary to what is the case in the inland seas of Europe, as

neither the Baltic nor Mediterranean have any; this difference seems to arise

from the sea's motion, which always moving from east to west, occasions

high, tides in the Straits, whose openings are turned towards the east;

whereas in those of Europe, which open to the west, there is no motion; the

ocean by its general motion enters into the first, and avoids the last; and this

is the reason that there are such violent tides in the seas of China, Corea, and

Kamtschatka.

Proceeding from Hudson's Strait towards Labrador, we come to a narrow

opening, in which Davis, in 1586, sailed as far up as 30 leagues, and

trafficked with the inhabitants, but no one has since attempted a discovery

of this arm of the sea, and we are only acquainted with the country of the

Esquimaux of all the adjacent land. The fort Pon Chartrin is the only and the

most northern habitation of this country, which is separated from the island

of Newfoundland by the little strait of Belleisle, which is not much

frequented. As the eastern coast of Newfoundland is in the same direction

as the coast of Labrador, we must regard the latter as a part of the continent,

the same as Isle-royal appears to have been a part of Arcadia. There is no

very considerable depth either on the great or other banks, where they fish

for the cod; but as they slant for a distance under water, very violent currents

are produced. Between Cape Breton and Newfoundland is a very broad

Strait, by which we enter a small mediterranean, called the Gulph of St.

Lawrence. This sea has an arm which extends far into the country, and seems

to be only the mouth of the river St. Lawrence. The motion of the tides is

extremely plain in this arm of the sea, and even at Quebec, which projects

more into the country, the waters rise several feet. On quitting the Gulph of

Canada, and following the coast of Arcadia, we meet with a small gulph

called Boston-Bay, which forms a small square inlet into the land. But before

we trace this coast farther, it is just to remark, that from Newfoundland to

the most projecting Antille island, even to Guiana, the ocean forms a very

great bay, which reaches as far as Florida, at least 500 leagues. This bay of

the new continent is similar to that of the old, of which we have taken notice,

where the ocean, after having made a gulph between Kamtschatka and New

Britain, afterwards forms a vast mediterranean, which comprehends the seas

of Kamtschatka, Corea, China, &c. so that in the new continent the ocean,

after having formed a great gulph between Newfoundland and Guiana,

forms a very large mediterranean, extending from the Antilles to Mexico,

which confirms our observations on the motion of the sea from east to west,

for it appears that the ocean has equally gained on the eastern coasts of

America and Asia. These great gulphs in the two continents are under the

same degrees of latitude, and nearly of the same extent.

If we examine the position of the Antilles, beginning at Trinidad, which is

the most south, we cannot doubt but that Tobago, Trinidad, the Grenades,

St. Vincent, Martinico, Mary Galante, Antigua, and Barbadoes, with every

other island adjacent, at one time formed a chain of mountains, whose

direction was from south to north, like that of the island of Newfoundland,

and the country of the Esquimaux; afterwards the direction of the Antilles is

from east to west, beginning at Barbadoes, then passing by St. Bartholomew,

Porto Rico, St. Domingo, and Cuba, and nearly the same as Cape Breton,

Acadia, and New England. All these islands are so adjacent to each other,

that they may be looked upon as an interrupted tract of land, and as the

summit of an overflown country now possessed by the sea. Most of them in

fact are only points of mountains, and the sea which surrounds them is a real

mediterranean where the motion of the flux and reflux is scarcely more

sensible than in our Mediterranean, although the openings they present to

the ocean are directly opposite to the motion of the waters from east to west,

which must contribute to elevate the tides in the gulph of Mexico; but as this

sea is very broad, the flux and reflux communicated to it by the ocean,

dispersing over so large a space, becomes almost insensible at the coast of

Louisiana, and many other places.

The old and new continent appear, therefore, both to have been encroached

upon by the ocean in the same latitudes. Both have a vast mediterranean and

a great number of islands, which are situated nearly in the same latitudes;

the only difference is, that the old continent being much broader than the

new, there is in the western part of it a mediterranean, of which nothing

similar can be found in the new; but it appears that all which has happened

to the eastern countries of the old world has also happened to the eastern

part of the new, and that the greatest revolutions are nearly in the middle

and towards their equators, where the most violent motion of the ocean is

made.

The coasts of Guiana, comprehended between the mouth of the river

Oroonoko and the Amazones, presents nothing remarkable, but the latter,

which is the broadest in the universe, forms a considerable extent of water

near Coropa, before it arrives at the sea, by the two different mouths which

surround the island of Caviana. From the mouth of the Amazones to Cape

St. Roche, the coast runs almost straight east; from Cape St. Roche to St.

Augustine it runs south, and from Cape St. Augustine to the Bay of All Saints

it turns towards the west, so that this part of Brazil forms a considerable

projection in the sea, which directly faces a like projection of land in Africa.

The Bay of All Saints is a small arm of the ocean, running about 50 leagues

into the land, and is much frequented by navigators. From this bay to Cape

St. Thomas the coast runs direct south, and afterwards in a south-west

direction as far as the mouth of the Plata, where the sea forms an arm

projecting nearly 100 leagues into land. From thence to the extremity of

America, the ocean forms a great gulph, terminated by the adjacent lands of

Terra del Fuega, as Falkland Island, Cape Assumption, and the land

discovered in 1671. At the bottom of this bay is the Straits of Magellan, which

is the longest in the world, and where the tides flow extremely high. Beyond

Magellan is that of La Maire, which is shorter, and at last Cape Horn, which

is the south point of America.

We must remark on the subject of these points that they all face the south,

and most of them cut by straits which run from east to west; the first is that

of South America, which faces the southern pole, and is cut by the Strait of

Magellan; the second, that of Greenland, which also directly faces the south,

and is also cut from east to west by Forbisher's Strait; the third that of Africa,

which also faces the south; and beyond the Cape of Good Hope are banks

and shoals, that appear to have been divided from it; the fourth, the

peninsula of India, which is cut by a strait that forms the island of Ceylon,

and facing the south like all the rest. Hitherto we perceive no reason to be

given for this similarity, and can only remark such are the facts.

From Terra del Fuega, all along the western coast of South America, the

ocean very considerably penetrates into the land; and this coast seems

exactly to follow the direction of the lofty mountains which cross all South

America, from south to north, from the equator to the Arctic Pole. Near the

equator the ocean forms a considerable gulph, beginning at Cape St.

Francois, and reaching as far as Panama, the famous isthmus, which, like

that of Suez, prevents the communication of the two seas, and without which

there would be an entire separation of the old and new continents. From

thence to California there is nothing remarkable. Between the latter and New

Mexico an arm branches off, called Vermilion Sea, at least 200 leagues in

length. In short, the western coasts of California have been followed to the

43d degree, at which latitude Drake, who was the first that made the

discovery of the land to the north of California, and who called it New

Albion, was obliged, through excessive cold, to change his course, and to

anchor in a small bay which bears his name, so that these countries have not

been discovered beyond the 43d and 44th degree, any more than the lands

pf North America beyond Moozemlaki under the 48th degree, and the

Assiniboils under the 51st. The country of the first savages extends much

more to the west than the east. All beyond, throughout an extent of more

than 1000 leagues in length, and as many in breadth, is unknown, excepting

what the Russians pretend to have discovered in their excursions from

Kamtschatka to the eastern part of North America.

The ocean, therefore, surrounds the whole earth without any interruption,

and the tour of the globe may be made from the south point of America; but

it is not yet known whether the ocean surrounds the northern part of the

globe in the like manner; and all mariners who have attempted to go from

Europe to China by the north-east of north-west have alike miscarried in

their enterprises.

The lakes differ from the mediterraneans; the first do not receive any water

from the ocean; on the contrary, if they have communication with the seas,

they furnish them with water. Thus the Black Sea, which some geographers

have regarded as an arm of the Mediterranean, and consequently as an

appendix of the ocean, is only a lake, because, in place of receiving water

from the Mediterranean, it supplies it with some, and flows with rapidity

through the Bosphorus into the lake called the Sea of Marmora, and from

thence through the Strait of the Dardanelles into the Grecian Sea. The Black

Sea is about 250 leagues long by 100 broad, and it receives a great number of

rivers, as the Danube, the Nieper, the Don, the Boh, the Donjec, &c. The Don,

which unites with the Donjec, forms, before it arrives at the Black Sea, a lake,

called the Palus Meotis, which is more than 100 leagues in length by 20 or 25

broad. The sea of Marmora, which is below the Black Sea, is a smaller lake

than the Palus Meotis, being not more than 50 leagues long and 8 or 9 broad.

Some ancients, and among the rest Diodorus Siculus, have asserted that the

Euxine, or Black Sea, was formerly only a large river or lake, and had no

communication with the Grecian sea; but being considerably increased with

time by the rivers which fell into it, the waters forced a passage at first on

the side of the Cyanean islands, and afterwards on the side of the Hellespont.

This opinion appears to be very probable, and the operation is easily

explained; for supposing the bottom of the Black Sea was formerly lower

than it is at present, then the rivers which come into it would have raised it

by the mud and sand which they brought with them, until the surface of the

water became higher than the land, when consequently it would have forced

a passage for itself, and as the rivers still continue to bring sand and earth,

and at the same time the quantity of water diminishes in the rivers, in

proportion as the mountains from which they drew their sources are

lowered, it may happen in a course of years that the Bosphorus will be again

filled up; but as these effects depend on many causes, it is scarcely possible

to give more than mere conjectures thereon. From this testimony of the

ancients, Mr. Tournefort, in his voyage to the Levant, says, on ancient

authority, that the Black Sea receiving the waters of a great part of Europe

and Asia, after being considerably increased, opened itself a passage by the

Bosphorus, and afterwards formed the Mediterranean, or so considerably

augmented it, that it became a great sea, and forced itself a road through the

strait of Gibraltar, by which the island of Atlantis, mentioned by Plato, was

entirely overflowed. This opinion has no foundation, since we are certain

that it is the ocean which flows into the Mediterranean, and not the

Mediterranean into the ocean. Besides, M. Tournefort has not combined two

essential facts, both of which he mentions: the first is, that the Black Sea

receives nine or ten rivers, not one of which but supplies it with more than

the Bosphorus throws out: and the second, that the Mediterranean does not

receive more water from rivers than the Black Sea, although it is seven or

eight times larger, and that what the Bosphorus supplies it with does not

make the tenth part of what falls into the Black Sea; how then could this tenth

part of what falls into a small sea have formed not only a larger sea, but have

also so greatly increased the waters, as to have broken down the lands at the

strait of Gibraltar, and overflow an island larger than the whole of Europe?

It is easy to perceive that this passage of M. Tournefort has not had due

reflection. The Mediterranean receives at least ten times more water from the

ocean than from the Black Sea, because the Bosphorus is only 800 feet broad

in its narrowest part, whereas the strait of Gibraltar is more than 5000, and

that, even supposing their velocity to be equal, still the depth of the straits of

Gibraltar is by far the greatest.

M. de Tournefort, who ridicules Polybius on his predicting that the

Bosphorus would be filled up in time, did not pay sufficient attention to

circumstances, when he asserted that event to be impossible. This sea

receives eight or ten great rivers, and as most of them bring sand and mud,

must it not gradually be choaked up? Must not the winds and the natural

current of the waters towards the Bosphorus, convey thither a part of these

matters? It is, therefore, very probable that in a course of time the Bosphorus

will be filled, when the waters of the rivers which come into the Black Sea

shall be gradually diminished; now all rivers daily diminish, because the

vapours collected by the mountains being the first sources of rivers, their

quantity must decrease as the mountains diminish in height.

The Black Sea in fact receives more water from rivers than the

Mediterranean, and the same author observes, "the greatest rivers in Europe

fall into the Black Sea, by means of the Danube, in which the rivers of Suabia,

Franconia, Bavaria, Austria, Hungary, Moravia, Corinthia, Croatia, Bothnia,

Servia, Transilvania, Wallachia, empty themselves; those of Black Russia and

Podolia, go into the same sea by the Niester; those of the southern and

eastern parts of Poland, of the northern parts of Muscovy, and the country

of the Cossacks, enter therein by the Neiper or the Boristhenes; the Tanais

and Copa also fall into the Black Sea by the Cimmerian Bosphorus; the rivers

of Mingrelia, of which Phasis is the principal, also voids itself into the Black

Sea, as does the Casalmac, the Sangaris, and other rivers of Asia Minor which

have their course towards the north; nevertheless the Thracian Bosphorus,

which is the only outlet from it, is not comparable to any of these great

rivers."

These facts prove, that evaporation alone carries off a very considerable

quantity of water, and it is from this great evaporation from the

Mediterranean that the ocean continually flows thither through the straits of

Gibraltar. It is difficult to estimate the quantity of water any sea receives; we

should be acquainted with the breadth, depth, and rapidity of all the rivers

which enter therein, how much they increase and diminish in the different

seasons of the year, and how much it loses by evaporation; the last of which

is most difficult; for even supposing it proportional to the surfaces, it must

be more considerable in a hot than in a cold climate; besides, water mixed

with salt and bitumen, evaporates more slowly than fresh water; a troubled

sea more quickly than one that is tranquil; and the difference of depth has

also some effect: in short, so many circumstances enter into this theory of

evaporation that it is scarcely possible to calculate any exact estimations on

it.

The water of the Black Sea appears to be less clear and less saline than that

of the ocean. There are no islands in it, and its tempests are more violent and

more dangerous than in the ocean, because the whole body of its waters

being contained in a bason, which has but a small outlet, when they are

agitated, they have a kind of whirling motion which strikes the vessels on

every side with an insupportable violence.

Next to the Black Sea the greatest lake in the universe is the Caspian Sea,

whose extent in length from north to south is about 300 leagues, and scarcely

more than fifty broad. This lake receives the Wolga and some other

considerable rivers, as the Kur, the Faie, and the Gempo; but what is

singular, it does not receive any on its eastern side; the country on that side

being only a desert of sand almost unknown. Czar Peter I. sent some

engineers there to design a chart of the Caspian Sea, who discovered that its

figure was quite different from that given by former geographers, who had

represented it to be round, whereas it is very long and narrow. The eastern

coasts of this sea, as well as the neighbouring country, were unknown: even

the existence of lake Aral, which is 100 leagues distant from it towards the

east, was doubtful, or at least thought to be a part of the Caspian Sea, so that

before the discoveries of the Czar there was unknown land in this climate

upward of 300 leagues long by 100 or 150 broad. Lake Aral is nearly an

oblong, and may be 90 or 100 leagues long, by 50 or 60 broad; it receives two

very considerable rivers, the Sideroias and the Oxus, but as well as the

Caspian has no outlet for its waters; and it bears the further resemblance, for

as the Caspian receives no river on the east, so lake Aral receives none on the

west, from which we may presume, that formerly these two lakes were but

one, and that the rivers having, by degrees, diminished, left a great quantity

of sand and mud, and which forms the country that now divides them. There

are some small islands in the Caspian, and its waters are much less saline

than those of the ocean; storms are here very dangerous, and large vessels

are not used in it for navigation, because it has many sand banks, shoals and

rocks scattered under the surface of the water. Pietro della Valle says, "The

largest vessels employed on the Caspian Sea, along the coasts of Mazanda in

Persia, where the town of Ferhabad stands, although they are called ships,

appear smaller than our Tartanes. Their sides are high, and they draw but

little water, having a flat bottom. They give this form to their vessels, not

only because this sea is shallow, but because it is filled with shoals and sand

banks; so that if the vessels were not fabricated in this manner they could

not be used with safety. Indeed, I was astonished, why at Ferhabad they fish

only for salmon, which are found at the mouth of the river, some poor

sturgeons, and other sort of fresh water fish, of little value: I attributed the

cause of it to their ignorance of the arts of fishing and navigation until the

Cham of Esterabad, whose residence is at a sea port, informed me that the

waters are so shallow 20 and 30 leagues from shore that it was impossible to

cast the nets with the chance of taking any fish, and that it was for this reason

they gave the above-mentioned form to their vessels, which are not mounted

with any cannon, as but few corsairs and pirates ever visit this sea."

Struys and other travellers have asserted, that in the neighbourhood of

Kilan, there were two gulphs wherein the rivers of the Caspian were

ingulphed, and carried afterwards by subterranean canals into the Persian

Gulph. De Fer and other geographers have even marked out these gulphs in

their maps, nevertheless we are assured by the people sent by the Czar that

they do not exist.

The circumstance of willow leaves being seen in great quantities on the

Persian Gulph, and which are supposed by the same authors to come from

the Caspian Sea because there are no such trees on the Persian Gulph, is fully

as improbable as their subterraneous gulphs, and which Gemelli Careri, as

well as the Muscovites, asserts are entirely imaginary: in fact, the Caspian is

near one third smaller than the Black Sea, which last also receives much more

water by rivers than the former: the evaporation therefore is sufficient to

carry off all its water, nor is it necessary to suppose subterraneous gulphs in

the Caspian any more than in the Black Sea.

There are lakes which do not receive any rivers, and from which none go

out. There are others which both receive and discharge and some that only

receive them. The Caspian Sea, lake Aral, and the Dead Sea, are of the last

kind; they receive the waters of many rivers, and contain them. In Asia

Minor there is a small lake of the like kind, and one much larger in Persia,

on which the town of Marago stands; its figure is oval, and it is about ten or

twelve leagues long, by six or seven broad; it receives the river Tauris, which

is not very considerable. There is also a similar small lake in Greece, about

12 or 15 leagues from Lepanto, which are the only lakes of that kind known

in Asia. In Europe there is not one which is considerable; in Africa there are

many small ones, as those which receive the rivers Ghir, Zez, Touguedout,

and Tasilet. These four lakes are pretty near each other, and situate towards

the frontiers of Barbary near the deserts of Zara; there is another situated in

the country of Kovar, which receives the river of Berdoa. In North America,

where there are more lakes than in any other part of the world, not one of

this kind is known, at least if we except two small collections of water formed

by rivulets, the one near Guatimapo, and the other some leagues from

Realnuevo, both in Mexico. But in South America, at Peru, there are two

contiguous lakes, one of which, lake Titicaca, is very large, and receives a

river whose source is not very remote from Cusco, and from which no river

issues: there is one smaller in Tucuman, which receives the river Sala; and

another larger in the same country, which receives the river Santiago, and

three or four others between Tucuman and Chili.

The lakes which receive no rivers, and from which no rivers issue, are greater

in number than those just spoken of; these lakes are kinds of pools where the

rain water collects; or may proceed from subterraneous waters, which issue

in form of springs, in low places, where they cannot afterwards find any

drain. The rivers which overflow may likewise leave stagnate waters in the

country, which may remain for a long time, and only be replenished by other

inundations. The sea has often inundated lands and formed saline lakes

therein, like that at Haarlem, and many others in Holland, to which, no other

origin can be attributed; or by losing its natural motion, might quit some

land, and leaving water in the lowest places may have formed lakes, which

have continued to be supported by rains. In Europe there are many small

lakes of this kind, as in Ireland, Jutland, Italy, in the country of the Grisons,

Poland, Muscovy, Finland, and in Greece. But all these lakes are very

inconsiderable. In Asia there is one near the Euphrates, in the desert of Irac,

more than 15 leagues long: another in Persia nearly of the same extent, and

on which the towns of Kelat, Tetuan, Vastan, and Van, are situated; another

small one in Chorazan near Ferrior; another in Independent Tartary, called

Lake Levi; two in Muscovy Tartary, another in Cochinchina, and one in

China very large, and not far distant from Nankin; this last, nevertheless,

communicates with the adjacent sea, by a canal several leagues in length. In

Africa there is a small lake of the same kind in the kingdom of Morocco;

another near Alexandria, which appears to have been left by the sea; another

very considerable one formed by the rain in the desert Azarad, about the

30th degree latitude; this lake is eight or ten leagues long; another still larger

on which the town of Gaoga is situate, in the 27th degree; another much

smaller, near the town of Kanum, under the 30th degree; one near the mouth

of the river Gambia; many more in Congo, about the 2d or 3d degree of south

latitude; two more in the country of the Caffrees, one called the Lake

Rufumbo, of no great length, and another in the province of Arbuta, which

is perhaps the greatest lake of this kind, being about 25 leagues in length by

seven or eight in breadth; there is also one of these lakes at Madagascar, near

the east side, about the 29th degree of south latitude.

In America there is one of these lakes in the middle of the peninsula of

Florida, in its centre is an island called Serope; the lake of Mexico is also of

this kind, this is almost round, and about 10 leagues diameter; there is

another still larger in New Spain, 25 leagues distant from the coast of

Campeachy Bay, and another smaller in the same country near the coast of

the South Sea. Some travellers have asserted that there was in the inland

parts of Guiana a very great lake of that kind; it is called the Golden Lake, or

Lake Parima. They have related surprising things of the riches of the

neighbouring country, and of the quantity of gold dust that is found in this

lake. They give it an extent of more than 400 leagues in length, and 125 in

breadth. No river, they say, goes out nor enters therein; although many

geographers have marked this lake in their maps, it is not probable there is

any such existing.

But the most general and largest lakes are those which receive and give rise

to other great rivers: as their number is very great I shall speak only of the

most considerable, or of the most remarkable. Beginning at Europe, we have

in Switzerland the lake of Geneva, Constance, &c.; in Hungary, the lake

Balaton; in Lavonia, a large lake, and which separates this province from

Russia; in Finland, the lake Lapwert, which is very long, and is divided into

many arms, and lake Oula, which is of a round figure; in Muscovy, lake

Ladoga, more than 25 leagues long by above 12 broad. Lake Onega is as long,

but not so broad. Lakes Ilmen and Belozo, from whence issue one of the

sources of the Wolga; the Iwan-Osero, from whence issues one of the sources

of the Don: two other lakes from whence the Vitzogda derives its origin; in

Lapland, the lake from which issues the river Kimi; another much larger near

the coast of Wardhus, and many others, from whence issue the rivers Lula,

Pithea, and Uma. These are not very considerable. In Norway two more of

nearly the same size as those of Lapland: in Sweden, lake Vener, which is as

large a lake as Meler, on which Stockholm is situated; and two others less

considerable; one is near Eveldal, and the other near Lincopin.

In Siberia, in Muscovy, and in Independent Tartary, there are a great number

of these lakes, the principal of which is the great lake Baraba, which is more

than 100 leagues long, and whose waters fall into the Irtis; the great lake

Estraguel, the source of the same river: many other smaller, the sources of

the Jenisca; the great lake Kita, the source of the Oby; another larger, the

source of the Angara; lake Baical, which is more than 70 leagues long, and is

formed by the same river Angara; lake Pehu, from which issues the river

Urack, &c. In China and Chinese Tartary, lake Dalai, from whence issues the

large river Argus, which falls into the river Amour; the lake of the three

mountains, the source of the river Helum; the lakes Cinhal, Cokmor, and

Sorama, the sources of the river Honaho; two other lakes adjacent to the river

Nankin, &c. In Tonquin, lake Guadag, which is very considerable. In India,

the lake Chiamat, from whence issues the river Laquia, adjacent to the

sources of the rivers Ava, Longenu, &c. This lake is more than 40 leagues

broad by 50 long. There is another at the origin of the Ganges; and one

bordering on Cashmere is the source of the river Indus, &c.

In Africa is lake Cavar, and two or three others adjacent to the mouth of

Senegal river. Lakes Guarda and Sigismus make but one lake, of a triangular

form, about 100 leagues long by 75 broad, and contain a very considerable

island. In this lake the Niger loses its name, and takes that of Senegal, in the

course of which, towards the source, we meet with another considerable

lake, called Bournou, where the Niger again loses its name, for the river

which comes therein is called Gambaru. In Ethiopia, at the sources of the

Nile, is the great lake Gambia, upwards of 50 leagues long. There are also

many lakes on the coast of Guinea, which appear to have been formed by

the sea, and there are only a few lesser lakes in the remaining part of Africa.

North America may be styled the country of lakes; the greatest are lake

Superior, upwards of 125 leagues long by 50 broad; lake Huron, upwards of

100 leagues long by 40 broad; lake Illionois, which, comprehending the Bay

of Puanto, is quite as extensive as lake Huron; lakes Erio, and Ontario,

together upwards of 80 leagues long, from 20 to 25 broad; the lake Mistasin,

to the north of Quebec, is about 50 leagues in length; and lake Champlain, to

the south of it, is nearly of the same extent; lake Alemipigon, and the lake

Christinaux, both to the north of lake Superior, are also very considerable;

the lake Assiniboils contains many islands, and is upwards of 75 leagues

long; there are also, independent of that of Mexico, two large lakes in that

country, the one called Nicaragua, in the province of that name, which is

upwards of 70 leagues long.

In South America there is a small lake, the source of the Maragnon, and

another larger which is the source of the river Paraguay; also the lake

Titicares, which falls into the river Plata; two smaller lakes which flow into

the same river; and some others, not very considerable, in the inland part of

Chili.

All lakes from which rivers derive their origin, those which fall into the

course of rivers, and which carry their water thereto, are not salt. Almost all

those, on the contrary, which receive rivers without others issuing thereout,

are salt; this seems to favour the opinion that the saltness of the sea arises

from the salts which rivers wash from the earth, and continually convey into

it; for evaporation cannot carry off fixed salts, and consequently those which

rivers carry into the sea remain therein. Although river water appears to

taste fresh, we well know that it contains a small quantity of salt, and in

course of time might have acquired such a considerable degree, as to

occasion the present saltness of the sea, and which must still continue

increasing. It is thus, therefore, as I imagine, that the Black Sea, the Caspian,

lake Aral, &c. have become salt. With respect to lakes, which do not receive

any river, nor from which does any issue, are either fresh or salt, according

to their different origins; those near the sea are generally salt, and those

remote from it are fresh, because the one has been formed by the inundations

of the sea, and the others proceed from springs of fresh water.

The lakes any ways remarkable are the Dead Sea, the waters of which

contain much more bitumen than salt: it is called the Bitumen of Judea, but

is no other than the Asphaltes, which has caused some authors to call it the

Asphaltic Lake. The lands which border this lake contain a great quantity of

this bitumen; and many have supposed, as the poets feign of lake Avernus,

that no fish could live therein, and birds which attempted to fly over it were

suffocated; but neither of these lakes produce such mortal events; fish live in

both, birds pass over them, and men bathe therein without the least danger.

At Boleslaw, in Bohemia, there is said to be a lake, wherein are holes, whose

depth is unfathomable, from which impetuous winds issue, which are

carried over all Bohemia, and in winter raise pieces of ice of an 100 weight

in the air.

A petrified lake in Iceland is also mentioned; and lake Neagh, in Ireland, has

also the same property; but these petrifactions are no other than

incrustations, like those made by the water of Arcueil.

ARTICLE XII,

OF THE FLUX AND REFLUX.

Water has but one natural motion; like other fluids it always descends from

the higher into the lower places, unless obstructed by some intervening

obstacle. When it reaches the lowest place it remains there calm and

motionless, at least without some foreign causes which agitates and disturbs

it. All the waters of the ocean are collected in the lowest parts of the surface

of the earth, of course the motions of the sea must proceed from external

causes, the principal of which is the flux and reflux, which is alternatively

made in a contrary direction, and from which results a general and continual

motion in the sea from east to west. These two motions have a constant and

regular relation with the motions of the moon. When the moon is new, or at

the full, this motion from east to west is more sensible, as well as that of the

tides, which upon most shores ebb and flow every six hours and a half: that

it is always high tide whenever the moon is at the meridian, whether above

or below the horizon of the place; and low tide when the moon rises or sets.

The motion of the sea from east to west is constant and invariable, because

the ocean in its flux moves from east to west, and impels towards the west a

great quantity of water, and the reflux seems to be made in a contrary

direction, by reason of the small quantity of water then driven towards the

west; the flux, therefore, must rather be regarded as a swelling, and the

reflux as a subsiding of the water, which instead of its disturbing the motion

from east to west, produces and continually restores it, although in fact it is

stronger during the rise, and weaker during the fall, from the above reason.

The principal circumstances of this motion are, 1. That it is more sensible

when the moon is new, or at the full, than in the quadratures: in spring and

in autumn it is also more violent than at any other time of the year; and it is

weaker in the solstices, which, is occasioned by the combination of the

attraction of the moon and sun. 2. The wind often alters the direction and

quantity of this motion, particularly that which constantly blows from the

same quarter. It is the same with respect to large rivers which convey their

waters into the sea and produce a current there, often extending several

leagues, which is strongest when the direction of the wind agrees with the

general motion. Of this we have an example in the Pacific Ocean, where the

motion from east to west is constant and very perceptible. 3. We must remark

that when one part of a fluid moves, the whole mass receives the motion;

now in the motion of the tides a great part of the ocean moves in a very

sensible manner, and consequently the ocean is agitated by this motion

throughout its whole extent.

Perfectly to comprehend this we must attend to the nature of the power

which produces the tides. We have observed that the moon acts upon the

earth by a power called attraction by some, and by others gravity: this force

penetrates through the globe, is exactly proportioned to the quantity of

matter, and decreases as the square of the distance increases. Let us next

examine what must happen to the waters when the moon is at the meridian

of any one place.—The surface of the waters being immediately under the

moon is then nearer that planet than any other part of the globe; hence this

part of the sea must be elevated towards the moon, by forming an eminence,

the summit of which must be opposite to the moon's centre; for the formation

of this eminence the waters at the bottom, as well as at the surface, contribute

their share, in proportion to the proximity they are in of the moon, which

acts upon them in the inverse ratio of the squares of their distances: thus the

surface of that part of the sea is first raised; the surface of the neighbouring

parts will be likewise elevated, but to a less height, and the water at the

bottom of all these parts will be raised by the same cause; so that all this part

of the sea growing higher and forming an eminence, it is necessary that the

water of the remote parts, and on which this force of attraction does not act,

proceeds with precipitation to replace the waters which are thus elevated

and drawn towards the moon. This is what produces the flux, or high tide,

which is more or less sensible on different coasts, and which agitates the sea

not only at its surface but even to the greatest depths. The reflux, or ebb,

happens afterwards by the natural inclination of the water, for when the

moon no longer uses its power, the water which was raised by this foreign

power retakes its level, and returns to the shores and places it had been

forced to quit. When the moon passes to the antipode, or opposite meridian,

the same effect ensues, though from a different cause, In the first case the

waters rise because they are nearer the planet than any other parts of the

globe; and in the second it is from the contrary reason, they rise because she

is the most remote from them; and this it is easily perceived must produce

the same effect, for the waters of this part being less attracted than those of

the opposite hemisphere, they will naturally recede and form an eminence,

the summit of which will answer to the point of the least action that is

directly opposite to the moon's station, or where she was thirteen hours

before. When the moon arrives at the horizon the tide is ebb, the sea is then

in its natural state, and the water in a direct equilibrium; but when she is at

the opposite meridian this equilibrium can no longer exist, since the waters

of the part opposite to the moon being at the greatest distance possible from

her, they are less attracted than the remaining part of the globe, and hence

their relative weight, which always retains them in an equilibrium, impels

them towards the opposite point to the moon. Thus in the two cases, when

the moon is at the meridian of a place, or at the opposite meridian, the water

must be raised nearly to the same height, and consequently fall and rise,

when the moon is at the horizon either at her rising or setting. Thus a motion,

such as we have just mentioned, necessarily disturbs the whole mass of the

sea, and agitates it throughout its whole extent and depth; and if this motion

appears insensible in the open seas, it is nevertheless no less real; but as the

winds cannot ruffle the bottom in an equal degree with the surface, the

motion of the tides is necessarily more regular there, although directed

alternately in the same manner as at the top.

From this alternative motion of flux and reflux there results, as already

observed, a continual motion of the sea from east to west, because the moon,

which produces the tides, proceeds from east to west, and successively

acting in the same direction, the water follows her course. This motion is

most considerable in all sraits; for example, at the straits of Magellan the

water rises nearly 20 feet, and continues so for six hours, whereas the reflux

lasts only two, and the water runs towards the west. This evidently proves

that the reflux is not equal to the flux, and that from both there results a

motion towards the west, much stronger in the time of the flux than in that

of the reflux. This is the reason that in open seas, remote from land, the tides

are only felt by the general motion of the waters from east to west.

The tides are stronger in the torrid zone between the tropics than in the rest

of the ocean: they are also more sensible in places which extend from east to

west, in long and narrow gulphs, and on the coasts where there and isles

and promontories. The greatest known flux is at one of the mouths of the

river Indus, where the water rises thirty feet. It rises also very remarkably

near Malays, in the straits of Sund, in the Red Sea, in Nelson's Bay, at the

mouth of the river St. Lawrence, on the coasts of China, Japan, Banama, in

the Gulph of Bengal, &c.

The motion of the sea from east to west is more sensible in particular places.

Mariners have observed it in sailing from India to Madagascar and Africa; it

is also very perceptible in the Pacific Sea, and between the Malaccas and

Brazil: but this motion is most violent in the Straits; for example, the waters

are carried with such great force in that direction through the Straits of

Magellan that it is felt to a great distance in the Atlantic; and it is supposed

that this caused Magellan to conjecture there was a strait by which the two

seas had a communication. In the Manilla straits, and in all the channels

which divide the Maldivian islands, the sea flows from east to west, as well

as in the Gulph of Mexico, between Cuba and Jucatan. In the gulph of Paria

this motion is so violent that the strait is called the Dragon's Mouth. In the

Canadian and Tartarian Seas it flows also with violence, as well as in the

Strait of Waigat, through which it conveys enormous masses of ice into the

northern seas of Europe. The Pacific Ocean flows from eastto west, through

the Straits of Java; the sea of Japan flows towards China, the Indian Ocean

flows towards the west, through the Straits of Java and other Indian islands;

we cannot, therefore, doubt that the sea has a constant and general motion

from east to west, and it is certain the Atlantic flows towards America, and

that the Pacific Sea goes from it, as is evident at Cape Current between Lima

and Panama.

In short, the alternatives of the flux and reflux are regularly made in six

hours and a half on most coasts, though at different hours, according to the

climate and position of the lands: thus the sea coasts are continually beaten

by the waves which at each time wash away some small parts of their

matters, which they transport to a distance, and deposit at the bottom of the

sea; so likewise the waves convey, and leave on the lower shores, shells,

sands, &c. these by degrees form horizontal strata, which accumulating,

become downs and hills, exactly similar to others, both as to form and

internal composition. From this constant action, the sea naturally shuts itself

out from the lowest coasts, and gains upon the highest.

To give an idea of the efforts of a troubled sea against coasts, I shall relate a

fact which has been affirmed to me by a creditable person, and which I the

readier gave credit to, having seen something nearly similar. In the principal

islands of the Orkneys there are coasts composed of rocks perpendicularly

divided to the surface of the sea, to the height of near 200 feet. The tides in

this place rise very considerable, as is common in all parts where there are

projecting lands and islands; but when the wind is very strong, and the sea

swells at the same time, the motion is so great, and the agitation so violent,

that the water rises to the summit of these rocks, and falls again in the form

of rain: it throws to this great height gravel and stones from the foot of the

rocks, and some of them even broader than the hand.

In the port of Livourne, where the sea is much more calm, I saw a tempest in

December, 1731, wherein they were obliged to cut down the masts of some

vessels that had been forced from their anchors by the wind, and driven into

the road. The sea swelled above the fortifications, which were of a

considerable height, and as I was on one of the most projecting works, I

could not regain the town before I was wetted by the sea-water much more

than I could have been by the most plentiful rain.

These examples are sufficient to shew with what violence the sea acts against

some coasts. This continual agitation destroys and diminishes by degrees the

land. The water carries away all these matters, and deposits them as soon as

it arrives at a part where the troubled sea subsides into a calm. In

tempestuous weather the water is foul, from the mixture of matters detached

from the shore and bottom of the sea, which then casts on the coasts a

number of things that it brings from a distance, and which are never met

with but after storms; as ambergris on the west of Ireland, and yellow amber

on those of Pomerania, cocoa-nuts on the coasts of India, &c. and sometimes

pumice and other singular stones. We can quote on this occasion a

circumstance related in the new travels to the American Islands. "Being at St.

Domingo, says the author, among other things they gave me some light

stones, which the sea brought to the coast when there had been strong

southerly winds; there was one two feet and a half long by eighteen broad,

and one thick, which did not quite weigh five pounds: they are as white as

snow, much harder than pumice, of a fine consistency, having no appearance

of being porous, but when thrown into water, rebounded like a ball thrown

on the ground, and it was with great difficulty they could be forced under

the water with the hand." The stone must have been a very fine and close-

grained pumice, which had issued from some volcano, and which the sea

had conveyed, as it transports ambergris, cocoa-nuts, common pumice-

stone, seeds of plants, rushes, &c. Observations of this kind have been

generally made on the coasts of Ireland and Scotland. The sea by its general

motion from east to west must convey the productions of our coast to those

of America; and it is by some irregular motions that the productions of the

East and West Indies, as well as the northern climates, are brought upon our

shores. There is a great appearance that the winds cause those effects; large

spots have often been observed in the high seas, far from shore, covered with

pumice-stones; they could only come from the volcanoes in islands or on the

continent, and which the current had transported to the middle of the seas.

Before the southern part of America was known, and in the time when the

India Sea was thought to have no communication with our ocean,

appearances of this kind afforded the first supposition of it.

The alternative motion of the flux and reflux, and the constant motion of the

sea from cast to west, presents different phenomena in different climates,

according to the bearing of the land and the height of the coasts. There are

parts where the general motion from east to west is not perceptible; there are

others where the sea has even a contrary motion, as on the coast of Guinea.

But these contrary motions are occasioned by the winds, by the position of

the lands, by the waters of large rivers, and by the disposition of the bottom

of the sea; all these causes produce currents which alter, and often change

the general motion in many parts of the sea; but as the motion from east to

west is the greatest, most general and constant, it must also produce the

greatest effects, and all taken together, the sea must gain ground towards the

west, and lose it towards the east; although it may happen that on those

coasts where the west winds blow during the greatest part of the year, as in

France and England, the sea may gain on the east, yet these particular

exceptions do not destroy the effect of the general cause.

ARTICLE XIII.

OF THE INEQUALITIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, AND OF

CURRENTS.

The coasts of the sea may be distinguished into three kinds, 1st, the elevated

coasts, which are rocks and hard stones, generally divided perpendicularly,

and which rise sometimes to the height of 7 or 800 feet. 2d, The low coasts,

some of which are almost level with the surface of the water, and others

rising with a moderate elevation, often bounded by rocks at the water's edge,

forming shelves and breakers, which render the approach to shore very

difficult and dangerous. 3dly, Downs, which are coasts formed by sand

which the sea accumulates, or brought or deposited by rivers; these downs

form hills more or less elevated, according to the accumulated sand.

The coasts of Italy are bordered by several sorts of marble and stone; these

rocks appear at a distance as so many pillars of marble perpendicularly

divided. The coasts of France from Brest to Bourdeaux are almost

surrounded with rocks just at the water's edge, which occasion dangerous

breakers. The coasts of England, Spain, and many others, are also bordered

with rocks and hard stone; excepting some parts which are made use of for

bays, ports, and havens.

The depth of water along the coasts is in proportion to their elevation. The

inequalities at the bottom of the sea near the coasts, correspond also with the

inequalities of the surface of the ground along the shore. A celebrated

navigator has made the following observations on this subject.

"I have constantly remarked, that where the coasts are defended by steep

rocks, the sea is there very deep, and seldom affords a probability of

anchoring; and, on the contrary, where the ground inclines from the coast to

the sea, however elevated it may be further inland, the bottom is good there,

and consequently admits of anchorage.

"According to the declivity of land, as it approaches the water's edge, so we

generally find our anchor ground, and either approach or keep at a distance

from shore agreeable to the steepness of the land; for I never saw or heard of

a coast where the land is of a continual height, without some vallies lying

intermixed with the high-lands; they are the subsiding of low lands, and

afford good anchoring, the earth being lodged deep under water; for this

reason it is we find good harbours upon coasts which abound with steep

cliffs, because the land has subsided between them. But Where the

declensions from the hills is not within land but towards the main sea, as at

Chili and Peru, and the coasts are nearly perpendicular, as in the countries

running from the Andes, it is very deep, and has scarcely any creeks or

harbours. The coasts of Gallicia, Portugal, Newfoundland, the islands of

Juan Fernando and St. Helena, &c. are somewhat similar to those of Peru,

yet good harbours are not so scarce, as there is always good anchorage where

there are short ridges of land. In general the land under water seems to be

exactly proportioned to the rising of the contiguous part above, and

therefore, where the lands upon the shores are steep, there is but little

security for ships, they being very easily driven from their moorings; yet

although steep cliffs denote this disadvantage, they assure us of this benefit

also, that we can sail close to them with safety, besides being able to see them

at a considerable distance; whereas low lands are frequently not discovered

until we are near, and always experience the hazard of running aground.

This fact of good anchorage where the lands on the coast are low, might be

illustrated by many instances in the bays of Campeachy, Honduras, Panama;

the coasts of Portobella, Carthagena, Guinea, Callifornia, China,

Coromandel, &c. but going into particulars would be almost endless, as I

very seldom found it otherwise than that deep waters and high shores went

together, as well as low lands and shallow seas."

The fact therefore of there being considerable mountains, and other

inequalities, at the bottom of the sea is fully confirmed by the observations

of navigators. Divers also assure us, there are smaller inequalities formed by

rocks, and that it is much the coldest in the vallies of the sea. In general the

depths in great seas, as we have already observed, increase proportionably

to their distance from shore. By Mr. Buache's chart of that part of the ocean

between the coasts of Africa and America, and by the divisions he has given

of the sea from Cape Tagrin to Rio-Grande, there appears to be similar

inequalities in the ocean to those on land. That the Albrolhos, where there

are some rocks at the surface of the water, are only the tops of very large and

lofty mountains, of which Dolphin island is one of the highest peaks. That

the islands of Cape de Verd are also the tops of mountains that there are a

great number of shoals in the sea, which round the Albrolhos descends even

to unknown depths.

With respect to the quality of the different soils which form the bottom of

the sea, as we must rely on divers and the plumb, we can say nothing exact

or precise concerning it; we only know that there are parts covered with mud

to a considerable thickness, on which anchors have no hold; in these parts

probably the mud of rivers are deposited. In other parts are sands similar to

those on land. In others are shells, heaped up together, madrepores, corals,

and other productions of insects, which begin to unite and appear like

stones; in others are fragments of stones, gravel, and often entire stones and

marble. For example, in the Maldivian islands the buildings are made of a

hard stone weighed up from several fathoms under water. At Marseilles

very good marble is obtained from the bottom of the sea, which, so far from

wasting and spoiling stone and marble, in our discourse on minerals, we

shall prove they are formed and preserved therein; whereas the sun, earth,

air, and rain water, corrupts and destroys them.

The bottom of the sea must be composed of the same matters as our habitable

land, because the very same substances are contained in the one as the other;

places are found at the bottom of the sea, covered with shells, madrepores,

and other productions of sea matters, as we meet with on earth an infinity of

quarries and banks of chalk and other matters replete with the same sort of

shells, madrepores, &c. so that in all respects the dry parts of the globe

resemble those covered by the water, both in composition of matters, and

inequalities of the superfices.

It is to these inequalities at the bottom of the sea, we must attribute the origin

of currents, for if the bottom was equal and level, there would be no other

current than the general motion from east to west, and a few others which

might be caused by the action of the winds; but a certain proof that most

currents are produced by the flux and reflux, and directed by the inequalities

at the bottom of the sea, is, that they regularly follow the tides, and change

their direction at each ebb and flow. See Pietra della Valle on the subject of

the currents of the gulph of Cambay, and the accounts of all navigators, who

unanimously assert that in those parts where the flux and reflux of the sea is

the most violent, the currents are also most rapid.

Therefore it cannot be doubted but that the tides produce currents whose

direction always answers that of the opposite hills and all mountains

between which they flow. Currents produced by winds, also follow the

direction of those hills which are under the water, seldom running opposite

to the wind which produces them, any more than those which are

occasioned by the tides follow the direction of their original cause.

To give a clear idea of the productions of currents, we shall first observe they

are to be met with in every sea; that some are rapid, and others slow; that

some are of great extent, both in length and breadth, and others short and

narrow; that the same cause, whether the wind or tides, which produces

these currents, frequently gives to each of them a velocity and direction very

different; that a north wind, for example, which should give the water one

general motion towards the south, on the contrary, produces a number of

currents, separated from each other, and very different both in extent and

direction; some flowing towards the south, others south-east, and others

south-west; some are very rapid, others slow; some long and broad, others

short and narrow; in fact, their motions are so various that we have no idea

left of their original cause. When a contrary wind succeeds, all these currents

take an opposite course, and follow in a contrary direction, precisely in the

same manner as would be the case upon land between two opposite and

adjacent hills, provided it was covered with water, as is seen at the Maldiva

and all the islands of the Indian seas, where the currents run, and the winds

blow, for six months in a contrary direction. The same remark has been made

on currents between shoals and sandbanks. In general all currents, whether

caused by the motion of flux or reflux, or the action by the wind; have the

same extent and direction throughout their whole course, yet differ from

each other in most respects, which can proceed only from the inequalities of

the hills, mountains, and vallies, at the bottom of the sea, it being certain that

the current between two islands follows the direction of the coasts; and the

same is observable between banks of sand, shoals, &c. we must, therefore,

look on the hills and mountains of the bottom of the sea as banks which

direct the current; and hence a current is a river, the breadth of which is

determined by that of the valley through which it flows: its rapidity depends

on the force which produces it, combined with the breadth, of the interval

through which it must pass: and its direction is traced by the position of the

hills and inequalities between which it must take its course.

We shall now give a reason for the singular correspondence between the

angles of mountains and hills, which are to be met with in every part of the

world. We have already remarked that when a river, &c. forms an elbow,

one of the borders forms on one side a projection inland, and the other forms

a point from land, and that through all the sinuosities of their course this

correspondence is always found. This fact is founded on the laws of

hydrostatics. It would be easy to demonstrate the cause of this effect; but it

is sufficient that it is general and universally known, and that all the world

may be convinced of it by their own eyes, that when the banks of a river form

a projection inland to the left hand, the other shore forms a projection from

land to the right.

Hence the currents of the sea must be looked upon as great rivers, subject to

the some laws as those on land, and will, like them, form in the extent of

their course many sinuosities, whose projections or angles will correspond;

and as the banks of currents are hills and mountains, above or below the

surface of the water, they will have given these eminences the same form as

is remarked on the shores of rivers; therefore we must not be astonished that

our hills and mountains, which have been formerly covered by the sea, and

formed by the sediments which the waters have left, should, by the motion

of its currents, have taken this regular figure, and all the angles are

alternately opposite; they have been the shores of the currents or rivers of

the sea, and have therefore necessarily taken a figure and direction similar

to those of the shores of the rivers of the earth.

This alone, independent of the other proofs we have given, would be

sufficient to evince that the earth of our continent and islands have been

covered with waters of the ocean, and doubtless throws great light upon the

Theory which I have endeavoured to prove well founded; for it was not

sufficient to have proved that the strata of the earth were formed by the

sediments of the sea; that the mountains were elevated by the successive

accumulation of such sediments; and that they were composed of shells and

other marine productions; but it required also a reason why the angles of

mountains so exactly correspond; this could only be done by an

investigation into the real cause, which had not hitherto been attempted, and

which, being united with the rest, forms a body of proofs as complete as may

be had in physics, and establishes my Theory to be founded on facts,

independent of all hypothesis.

The principal currents of the ocean are those observed in the Atlantic Sea,

near Guinea. They extend from Cape Verd to the Bay of Fernandes. Their

motion is from west to east; that is contrary to the general motion of the sea.

These currents are so rapid that vessels sail in two days from Moura to Rio

de Benin, a course of 150 leagues; but they require six or seven weeks to

return; nor would it be possible to get out of these climates if advantage was

not taken of the tempestuous winds which suddenly rise in them; but there

are entire seasons during which vessels cannot stir, the sea being continually

calm, excepting what arises from the currents, which is always directed

towards the coasts, and never extend more than 20 leagues from shore. Near

Sumatra there are rapid currents, which flow from south to north, and which

probably formed the gulph at Malacca. There are also considerable currents

between Java and Magellan, the Cape of Good Hope, and the island of

Madagascar, especially on the coast of Africa, between Natal and the Cape.

In the Pacific Sea, on the coast of Peru, and the rest of America, the sea moves

from south to north, and a south wind continually blowing there seems to

be the cause. The like motion is observed on the coasts of Brazil; from Cape

St. Augustine to the Antilles; from the mouth of the Manilla strait to the

Philippine islands; and in the port of Kubuxiu at Japan.

There are violent currents in the sea adjacent to the Maldivian islands; and

between those islands these currents flow, as already observed, constantly

for six months from east to west, and during the other six months they follow

the direction of the monsoons, and it is probable they are produced by those

winds.

We speak here only of currents, whose extent and rapidity are very

considerable, for in every sea there are an infinity of currents, though of no

great importance. The flux and reflux, the winds, and all other causes which

agitate the waters, produce currents, more or less perceptible, in different

parts. We have observed that the bottom of the sea, like the surface of the

earth, is overspread with mountains intersected with inequalities and

divided by banks of sand. In all mountainous places currents will be violent;

in all places where the bottom of the sea is level they will be almost

imperceptible; the rapidity of the current will increase in proportion to the

obstacles the water meets with, or rather to the contraction of the spaces

through which they incline to pass. Between two chains of mountains the

current will be so much the stronger as the mountains are near. It will be the

same between two banks of sand, or two neighbouring islands. It is also

remarked in the Indian ocean, which is divided with an infinity of islands

and banks, there are rapid currents throughout, which render the navigation

of that sea dangerous.

It is not inequalities at the bottom of the sea alone which form currents, but

the coasts themselves have a similar effect, as the water is repelled at greater

or lesser distances: this repulsion of the waters is a kind of current which

circumstances can render continual and violent; the oblique position of a

coast, the vicinity of a bay, or of some great river, a promontory; in one word,

every particular obstacle which opposes the general motion, will always

produce a current. Now, as nothing is more irregular than the bottom and

borders of the sea, we must cease from being surprised at the great number

of currents which every where appear.

All currents have a determinate breadth, which depends on that of the

interval between the two eminences which serves it for a bed. The currents

flow into the sea as rivers flow on land, and they produce similar effects.

They form their bed, and give to eminences corresponding angles. In one

word, it is these currents which hollowed our vallies, formed our mountains,

and gave to the surface of the earth, when it was under water, the form it

now retains.

If any doubt of the correspondence of the angles of mountains remains, I

appeal to the sight of every man who makes the observation. Every traveller,

with the smallest attention, will perceive that the opposite sides of a hill

exactly correspond. Whenever the hills to the right of the valley form a

projection, those opposite recede to the left. These hills have also nearly the

same elevation, and it is very rare to see any great inequality of height in the

two hills separated by a valley. I can assert, that the more I have looked on

the circumference and heights of hills, the more I have been convinced of the

correspondence of the angles, and of the resemblance they have with the

beds and borders of rivers; and it is by reiterated observations on this

surprising regularity and resemblance that my first ideas of this Theory of

the Earth arose. Let us add to these observations that of the parallel and

horizontal situation of the strata, that of the shells being dispersed

throughout the earth, and incorporated in every matter; and it must be

admitted, that on a subject like this we cannot have a greater degree of

probability.

ARTICLE XIV.

OF REGULAR WINDS.

Nothing can appear more irregular and variable than the force and direction

of winds in our climates; but there are countries where this irregularity is not

so great, and others where the winds constantly blow in one direction, and

with almost the same degree of strength.

Although the motion of the air depends on a great number of causes, there