■? OS K^ ^OFCAUFOR^ Si £2 =» § 1?^ ^OW'MWffll'^ ^53AEUNIVER5/^ i ^ 3 .rfsr^ %i3DNvs(n'^ %a3MNnmv^ if t f ^— ' ^ ^ ^lUBRARYQ^ llFOff^ % .•^MFIIUlVFIir/A .vinMCFIffj^ 1^ ^QA: '»' ^OFCAIIF0% ^EIJNIVER% j^lOSANCEl£r^ I l^j t^i ^^' ^mmm^. ^mmo, ^mmo. I THE WORLD BOSTON: G. C. RAND — WM. J, REYNOLDS .S^ CO. THE WORLD AND ITS INHABITANTS. by BV THE AOTHOR OF PETER PARLEY'S TALES. BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY GEO. C. RAND, CORNHILL. WM. J. REYNOLDS AND COMPANY. 18 5 2. Entered according to Act of Congress,*9j\!lTj .„ the jear 1845, ^^(P By S. G. fiiiODRICH, i'th»o- duction of submarine volcanoes, which heave tho»* ivP from the bosom of the waters, and fertilize their surface by the matter ejected from their bowels. The largest islands of the globe are Borneo, New Guinea or Papua, Greenland, Sumatra, Madagascar, Niphon, Cuba, Great Britain, &c. Caverns. — Caves or grottos are cavities of greater or less extent, which have been formed by different causes in the crust of the earth. They are either open to day, or are more or less completely concealed in the interior of the earth. There are many different modes in which these wonders of nature are formed. Those in limestone and gypsum appear to have been produced by the dis- solving power of water, which has thus hollowed out the rock, and carried off the dissolved materials. Those in lava and trachyte are produced by the expansive power of gases or vapors, operating upon the rocky mass in a state of fusion, or softened by heat. Others are the effect of rents in the crust of the earth, occasion- ed by earthquakes. Stalactites and stalagmites are formed by the filtra- tion of water containing calcareous matter through the pores or fissures in the roofs of limestone caverns. GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 31 When the water deposits its hme, as it drops from the roof of the cavern, it forms long rods of btone, hanging down hke icicles, which are called stalactites; but when the water falls to the floor, or trickles down the sides of tlie cavern, the calcareous crust formed by its evajjoration is called a stalagmite. The masses thus produced, whether pendent from the roofs or rising from the floor, often assume shapes resembling objects of nature or art, and frequently give the cavern a highly brilliant appearance. Caves of America. — The cave of Guacharo, near Caripe, in Venezuela, is so called from the vast flocks of nocturnal birds of that name which frequent it, and which are killed in great numbers for their fat. It is 85 feet broad and 77 high at its opening, and preserves these dimensions for the distance of about a quarter of a mile. A river issues from it, but it has never been explored. Near the Duida Mountain, in the valley of the Ori- noco, there is the vast cave of Ataruipe, remarkable as containing the skeletons of an extinct tribe of natives, and urns filled with bones, which have been prepared by drying in the sun, or by being besmeared with resins or some coloring matter. Nickojack Cave, in the northwestern part of Georgia, which is 50 feet high by 100 wide, and is traversed'by a stream of considerable size, has been explored to the distance of three miles. Wyer's Cave, in Virginia, contains a series of large halls extending for the distance of half a mile, and adorned with glittering stalactites. Mammoth Cave, in Edmonson county, Kentucky, is 32 GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. one of the largest that has been discovered ; it extends ten or twelve miles, containing a great number ol' long passages and vast halls ; one ol" these, called the Te.nple, IS said to be eight acres in extent, witli a roof lUU feet high, unsupported by a single pillar ; from this numerous avenues lead to several other apartments little inferior in size. A large hotel has been built in this wonder- ful cave, and sixty persons sometimes may be seen dining there.* Caves in Europe. — One of the most remarkable of these is Fingal's Cave, in the island of StafT'a. Its entrance, 66 feet high by 42 wide, leads into a natural hall about 200 feet in length, which is bounded on all sides by regular columns of basalt. It was not dis- covered till 1772. The Peak Cavern, near Castleton, Derbyshire, Eng- land, is a huge gulf, 42 feet high and 120 feet long, at the foot of perpendicular cliffs of amazing heiglit. Thence the visiter is conducted through a succession of dark, cavernous apartments, and ferried along a subterraneous river, above which the rocks are so close, that he is obliged to lie flat on his face. This terminates at the distance of about 2,000 feet. Poole's Hole, near Buxton, is chiefly remarkable for the large masses of stalactite and other petrifac- tions with which it is fllled. It derives its name from its having been the retreat of a famous robber of the sixteenth century. Bauman'.r.s Cave, in the Hartz Mountains, consists of a series of rooms, six in number, having a total length * For a full description of this and other caves, see " Wondere of Geology." GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 33 of 760 feet ; and in the same region is Biel's Hole, formed of fifteen apartments, 650 feet in length. Near Grenoble, in France, is the cave of our Lady of Bahne, composed of several apartments, glitter ing with stalactites, resounding with cascades, and containing a subterranean lake which the visiter crosses by the glare of torches. Among the thousand caves found in the mountains of the Austrian kingdom of lUyria, the Adclsberg is the most remarkable. It is stated to be five miles in length ; it is a perfect labyrinth, composed of long, steep, and winding passages, terminating in lofty and spacious apartments, decorated with stalactites of the most fantastic and picturesque groupings, traversed by a boisterous toiTent, whose tumultuous roarings are repeated by the echoes of the vaults, and contain- ing great quantities of organic remains. Magdalen's Cave, in the vicinity, is less extensive but more lofty, and its stalactites resemble colossal caryatides, sus- taining high arches. The Grotto del Cane, or Dog's Cave, near Naples, is a small aperture, deriving its interest from the exhalations which issue from it, strongly impregnated with carbonic acid gas. It is usual to plunge a dog into this suffocating air for the amusement of visiters ; on being withdrawn, the animal, which had become apparently lifeless, immediately recovers its powers. The cave of Trophonius was celebrated among the ancients for its oracle ; it was a small, deep hole, in Boeotia, down which the person consulting the oracle was obliged to descend, and in which he was subjected to a number of fatiguing and terrifying 3 34 GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. rites , as he usually returned pule and dejected, it became a proverbial expression in regard to a melan- choly person, " He has just come from the cave of Trophonius." The celebrated grotto of Antiparos, in one of the Grecian islands, is a spacious cave 350 feet long, 325 broad, and about 175 high, situated at the bottom of a succession of steep, winding galleries, near 1,500 feet below the surface of the ground. Colossal pillars of crystallized alabaster rise from the floor to the roof, and stalactites of the same substance hang like huge icicles from the roof, decorated with festoons, curtains, &c., of shining white rock and glitter- ing crj'stals. Natural Bridges. — Akin to these natural saloons, and often accompanying them, are the natural bridges formed by solid arches stretching over chasms, or by large masses of rock, which, having fallen into a cleft, have been arrested in the descent by the narrowness of the fissure, and have thus bridged over the otherwise im- passable gulf. The most remarkable of these are the natural bridges of Icononzo, near Bogota, in New Grenada ; that of Rumichaca, near Pasto ; that of the Ay, in Cuba ; that of the Mother of God, in Mexico ; the celebrated Rock Bridge of Virginia ; the natural bridge of Veja, near Verona, &c. The bridges of Icononzo extend over a crevice, at the bottom of which flows the torrent of Summa Paz ; the upper bridge is a natural arch, 40 feet broad by 50 long, 318 feet above the stream; the lower is 64 feet beneath this, and is formed of three enormous blocks, which have fallen so as to support each other. GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 35 The Natural Bridge ofVirginia is 60 feet wide, 90 long, and 250 high, from the bottom of the fissure over wliich it extends. Plains. — We give tlie name of plains to extensive tracts, whose surface is in the main level, or but slightly broken by gently swelling and subsiding eminences, or by inconsiderable and almost imperceptible de- pressions. They are found at all degrees of eleva- tion above the sea, and of every stage of fertility, from the inexhaustible fecundity of the Egyptian Delta to the irreclaimable sterility of the sandy deserts. America contains several vast plains. One of these extends from the shores of the Arctic Sea to those of the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Rocky Mountains to the AUeghanies ; it embraces the valleys of the Missis- sippi, the St. Lawrence, the Nelson, the Churchill, and most of those of the Missouri, the Mackenzie, and the Coppermine, including an area of 3.240,000 square miles. Another great plain comprises the central part of South America, extending over an area of 3,000,000 square miles, including more than half of Brazil, the southern part of New Grenada, the eastern part of Ecuador and Peru, and the northern part of Bolivia; its moist and warm climate clothes it with a pomp and vigor of vegetation nowhere equalled. The plain of the Plata, extending from the mountains of Brazil to the Strait of Magellan, comprehends the whole of the southern part of South America east of the Andes, with an area of 1,620,000 square miles. The plain of the Orinoco, including the region extending from the Caqueta to the mouths of the Orinoco, has an area of 350,000 square miles. These two are distinguished 36 GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. from the great plain of the Amazons by the absence of trees, and the wide grassy tracts which cover their surface. The most extensive plain on the surface of the globe is the vast tract stretching from the shores of the North Sea to the Pacific Ocean, and broken only by the Ural Mountains. It has an average breadth of 1,400 miles, and a length of 6,000, comprehending an area of 6,500,000 square miles. It comprises large heaths, sandy deserts, and steppes, or open pastures, but has few considerable forests. Table Lands. — Table lands, or plateaux, are ele- vated plains, forming in some instances the nucleus of the great masses of land above the general surface of which they rise. They often contain chains of mountains, plains, and valleys, and their declivities present to the inhabitants of the low countries at their feet the appearance of a long chain of mountains. The whole of Central Africa is supposed to be a vast table land, descending by successive terraces towards the coasts on all sides. The interior of Asia is composed of a succession of these lofty plains, among which the following are the most remarkable ; the Persian table land com- prises nearly all the country south of the Caspian and Black Seas, from Asia Minor to the Indus, including Armenia, Georgia, Curdistan, Persia, Afghanistan, &c. ; this region is from 2,500 to 6,000 feet above the sea ; Zungaria and the adjacent region is from 2,000 to 2,500 high ; Mongolia lies at an elevation of from 8,000 to 12,000 feet, and Thibet is still more elevated. There are some masses of this kind in Europe, but GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 37 of less extent ; the central part of Spain is a lofty plain of about 2,200 feet in height, and between the Alps and the Jura is the Swiss table land, about 3,500 feet high. One of the most remarkable of these masses is the Mexican table land, not less extraordinaiy for its extent than its elevation. On the eastern and western coasts are low countries, from which, on journeying into the interior, you immediately begin to ascend, climbing to all appearance a succession of lofty mountains. But the whole interior is in fact thus raised into the air from 4,000 to 8,000 feet. This conformation of the country has most important moral and physical results; for while it gives to the table land, on which the popu- lation is chiefly concentrated, a mild, temperate, and healthy climate, unknown in the burning and deadly tracts of low country into which a day's journey may carry the traveller, it also shuts out the former from an easy communication with the sea, and thus deprives it of ready access to a market for its agi'icultural pro* ductions. Carriages pass without difficulty on the sum- mit of the table land for hundi-eds of miles, from Mexi- co to Santa Fe, but can descend to the eastern and western coasts only at a few points. A large part of New Grenada and Ecuador is situated at an elevation of from 5,000 to 9,000 feet, and contains populous cities, such as Quito, Bogota, &c., 8,000 or 10,000 feet above the level of the sea. Another of these table lands includes an extensive tract in Peru, Bolivia, and the States of the Plata, stretching from 6° to 26° S. Lat., and raised above the sea to the height of from 4,000 to 10,000 and even XX. — 4 38 GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 12,000 feet. These three great plateaux were each the centre of a native American civilization at the time of the discovery of the continent. Deserts. — Deserts are tracts of greater or less extent, utterly sterile, and incapable of supporting vegetable matter or animal life. These frightful soli- tudes, destitute of water or verdure, present plains of sand or shingle, interspersed with not less barren and arid heights, and exhibiting no indications of animated beings. In some, parched by a scorching sun, burning winds, charged whh poisonous exhalations, and col- umns of moving sands, add to the horrors of the scene. Even these desert regions are, however, generally in- terspersed here and there with little fertile tracts, ris- ing like green islands out of the sandy ocean, well watered and well wooded, and affording shade and re- freshment to the exhausted traveller ; these spots are called oases or wadies. The most extensive of these desert tracts is the great sandy zone which stretches from the Atlanl^ic Ocean across Africa and Central Asia nearly to the Pacific Ocean, or to 120° E. Lon. It includes nearly one fourth of the eastern continent through which it passes, covering an area of 6,500,000 square miles. Sahara or the Great Desert of Africa, Arabia, and the plateaux of Persia and Thibet, present the most con- tinued surface of sand. America is characterized by an almost entire ab- sence of deserts, ami it has been estimated that, al- though its surface is less than half of that of the Old World in extent, it contains at least an equal quantity of useful soil. The only true sandy deserts are that GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 39 of Atacama, a belt of sand extending, with considera- ble interruptions, from the northern part of Peru to Copiapo in Chili, a distance of about 1,700 miles, with a width of from ten to fifty ; and the Desert of Pernam- buco which is also an arid waste of sand ; but other tracts to which this name has been applied are, though incapable of culture, yet not destitute of vegetation. Steppes, Pampas, Karroos, &c. — The surface of the earth contains several extensive tracts, which, al- though possessing a productive soil, are yettin their natural state entirely destitute of trees, and in general spread out into wide, unbroken plains. Such are the extensive open pastures of the great plain of Northern Europe and Asia, called steppes, the jungles of India, the karroos of Southern Africa, the prairies of North America, the llanos and pampas of South America, and the heaths of Europe. While the whole Atlantic slope of North America south of the St. Lawi-ence, and the region west of the Rocky Mountains, were naturally covered with a dense forest, the great plain before described formed what Darby calls the grassy or prairie section, consisting chiefly of unwooded, but fertile plains, covered with a rich herbage, and affording immense natural pastures, though occasionally degenerating into bare and arid wastes. An extensive tract of several hundred miles in w'idth, on the east of the Rocky Mountains, ap- proaches to the character of a desert, and much of the northern part of the continent exhibits the same features. In Venezuela, the wide plains called llanos are foi half the year covered with a luxuriant verdure, bu 40 GEOGKAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. during the dry season become parched and burned so as to resemble sterile wildernesses. The pampas, which occupy a large part of the plain of the Plata, are dotted here and there with palm groves, and in some places are overgrown with thistles, or incrustcd with salt ; but for the most part they are cov- ered with rich herbage, feeding countless herds of cattle Some of the steppes of Asia are merely sandy plains, bearing a few stunted shrubs, and exhibiting only occasional spots of verdure ; others are covered with herbage, and afford good pasturage for the nu- merous herds of the pastoral tribes that roam through them ; others bear saline and succulent plants, or are coated with saline incrustations. The karroos of Southern Africa are tracts of arid clay-land, bearing some succulent plants, but the mea- gre vegetation which clothes them with green, and adorns them with flowers, during the rainy season, dis- appears during the heats of summer, giving the coun- try the aspect of a parched and barren plain. The jungles of India are tracts covered with dense and impenetrable masses of vegetation, crowded and twined together, consisting of thorny and prickly shrubs of every size and shape, canes, ^\■hich in a few months shoot up to the height of sixty feet, and creeping plants and bushes, and forming impassable barriers even to an army. Valleys. — Valleys are the spaces lying between opposite ridges of mountains or hills, and their lowest part is commonly the bed of some torrent or river, which has its sources in the higher grounds. Those between high mountains are in general narrow and long, resembling large clefts or fissures. GEOGFxAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 41 Some valleys, lying between opposite mountainous chains, are of great extent, comprising whole prov- inces or countries. Such are the great valleys of the Ganges in Asia, and of the Mississippi in North Amer- i';a. Some are situated far above the level of the ocean, although sunk deep below that of the adjoining country. Such are those of Chota, near Quito, which is 5,000 feet deep, and of Rio Catacu, in Peru, which is 4,000. Boolan, Thibet, and Nepaul, are deep valleys of Asia. Those of the Po, of Savoy, the Tyrol, &c., in Europe, are of less extent. WATER SURFACE OF THE GLOBE. Any definition of this element is unnecessary ; but mankind must have remarked, at a very early period, that the waters distributed over the globe differ con- siderably in their fitness for drinking, for preparing food, and for other domestic purposes. These dif- ferences are occasioned by the foreign bodies which this liquid holds in a state of solution or suspension ; for water is capable of dissolving a greater number of substances than any other fluid. Hence, it is scarce- ly ever found native in a state of absolute purity ; in some cases the quantity of foreign matter is so minute as to have little influence on the taste, or other prop- erties ; but in other instances, they are so abundant as to render it unfit for common use, or even noxious ; while, at other times, it is medicinal, according to 4* 42 GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. the nature of the substances Avilh which it is impreg- narcd. Native water, free from color, is almost never poisonous, especially if it be at the same thne tasteless ; but if blue from copper, green from iron, or brown from vegetable impregnation, it is unfit for the use of man. Water performs the most important functions in the vegetable and animal kingdoms, and enters largely into their compositions as a constituent part. This substance presents itself under three different forms of aggregation. If under sufficient pressure, it is liquid at all temperatures above 32°, so far as is known. It is the densest at the temperature of 40°. When cooled down to 32°, it ordinarily assumes the form of ice ; but if great care be taken to avoid agitation, it . may be cooled almost to zero without freezing. Con- gelation commences in the form of prismatic crystals, crossing each other at angles of 60° or 120°, and the temperature, however low before, instantly rises to 32°. During this process, the water expands with a prodi- gious force, the volume suddenly increasing about a ninth part. Glass bottles filled with water, and properly stopped, are burst during its congelation, and the same has happened to a strong bomb-shell. Water passes into vapor at all temperatures, and under any pressure ; when the elasticity of the vapor equals or exceeds the incumbent pressure, the process proceeds with violence, and is called boiling. Under the ordinary pressure of the atmosphere, this takes place at about 212° of Fah- renheit's scale ; but the boiling temperature varies with the pressure ; hence water boils at a lower temperature on a mountain top, and at a higher in a deep pit. The relations of water to heat are very remarkable. GEOGRAPHICAL VIKW OF THE EARTH. 43 With the exception of hydrogen gas, it absorbs more heat in warming, and parts with more in cooling, tliau otlicr bodies do. Hence large bodies of water have a powerful influence in checking or retarding sudden alterations of temperature in the surrounding air. Ice, in melting, absorbs as much heat as would raise its temperature 140°, and gives out the like quantity again in freezing, — a property that enables it to resist or retard sudden alterations of temperature in cold climates in a more remarkable degree than the other ; which, however, exerts its influence in the torrid and temperate, as well as in the frigid zone. Lastly, watei", in assuming the elastic form, absorbs heat sufi'icient to raise its temperature 1000°, and parts with as much in recondensing into water ; so that water possesses an almost boundless influence in tempering climate. Water, as to its composition, v/as long ranked among the simple elements ; but the researches of mod-, ern chemistry have ascertained that it is a compound of 88.9 parts of oxygen, and 11.1 of hydrogen ; or its composition by volume and weight may be thus stated : one volume of oxygen combined with two of hydrogen, or eight parts by weight of oxygen with one of hydro- gen. It is composed and decomposed, during many of the operations of nature, and its chemical agency is almost universal. It is an ingredient in most bodies which appear under the crystalline form. Rivers. — The origin and progress of rivers h:.ve been compared by Pliny to the life of man. " Its beginnings are insignificant, and its infancy is frivo- lous ; it plays among the flowers of a meadow, it waters a garden, or turns a mill. Gathering strength in its 44 GEOGKAPniCAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. youth, it becomes wild and impetuous. Impatient of the restraints which it still meets with in the hollows of the mountains, it is restless and fretful, quick in its turning, and unsteady in its course. Now it is a roar- ing cataract, tearing up and overturning whatever opposes its progress, and it shoots headlong down a rock; then it becomes a sullen, gloomy pool, buried m the bottom of a glen. Recovering breath by repose, It again dashes along, till, tired of uproar and mischief, It quits all that it has swept along, and leaves the open- ing of the valley strewed with the rejected waste. Now quitting its retirement, it comes abroad into the world, journeying, with more prudence and discretion, through cultivated fields, yielding to circumstances, and winding round what would trouble it to overwhelm or remove. It passes through the populous cities, and all the busy haunts of man, tendering its services on every side, and ■becomes the support and ornament of the countr}\ Increased by numerous alliances, and advanced in its course, it becomes grave and stately in its motions, loves peace and quiet, and in majestic silence rolls on its mighty waters till it is laid to rest in the vast abyss." The sun, moon, and the host of heaven, have, in all ages and nations, been objects of sincere worship. Next to them, the rivers seem to have attracted the grateful acknowledgments of the inhabitants of the neighbouring countries. They have everywhere been considered a 6ort of tutelar deities, and each little district, every re- tired valley, had its river god, who was preferred to the others. The expostulation of Naaman, the Syrian, who was offended by the prophet for enjoining him to wash ji the River Jordan, was the natural effusion of this GEOGRAPHICAL VIKW OF THE EARTH. 45 attachment. "What," said he, "are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, more excellent than all the waters of Judea ? Might I not wash in them and be clean ? So he went away wroth." In those countries, particularly where the labors of the husbandman and shepherd depended on what took place in a far distant country, by the falling of periodical rains, or the melting of the collected snows, the Nile, the Ganges, the Indus, were the sensible agents of nature in procuring to the inhabitants of their fertile banks all their abundance, and they became objects of grateful adoration. Their sources were sought for even by conquering princes, and when found were worshipped with the most affec- tionate devotion. These rivers preserve to this day the fond adoration of the inhabitants of the countries through which they pass, and their waters arc still held sacred. The general utility of rivers is no less obvious than their beauty. They carry the waters from the mountains and highlands to the plains below, and scatter fertility along their borders. They furnish the means of con- veying the fruits of industry to the ocean, the great highway of nations, and of bringing back the varied productions of other climes. Their banks become the marts of commerce, and the seats of wealth and civili- zation. The following table shows the length of some of the most remarkable rivers on the globe. IN AMERICA. Miles. Missouri, to the mouth of Mississippi, . 3,500 Oregon, or Columbia, ..... 1,200 St. Lawrence, .... 2,000 46 GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. Arkansas, Eio Bravo del Norte, Connecticut, Hudson, Delaware, Volga, Danube, Rhine, Rhone, Tagus, Seine, Po, Thames, Tiber, Nile, Niger, Congo, Senegal, Yenesei, Yangste Kiang, Obi, Ganges, Euphrates, Ural, Cataracts. — When a IN EUROPE. IN AFRICA. IN ASIA. river bed suddenly changes its level, so that the stream is plunged down a consider- GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 47 able distance, a cataract, cascade, or full is formed ; wiicn the change of the level is less abrupt, and the inclination is yet such as to render the current violent and broken, we give it the name of rapids. Falls are generally formed by the descent of rivers or streams from primitive mountains to secondary countries ; compact, durable rocks are requisite for producing a permanent etTect of this kind ; such are the cataracts of the Nile, the Ganges, and most other rivers. Some cataracts, like those of Tunguska in Siberia, have gradually lost their elevation by the wearing away of the rocks over which they are precipitated, and have become merely rapids, and the same effect is produced in others by the gradual filling up of the gulf into which they plunge. " Cataracts," says Lamouroux, " must have been both more numerous and more lofty in the ancient world than they are at present. They are daily diminished both in number and height by the action of the universal leveller, time, and perhaps in some future age the cataracts of the Nile and the Ganges, the Falls of Niagara, and the cascades of Tequendama will be looked upon as a fiction of poetry." Some of the most beautiful cataracts have been created, at least in part, by human labor. The celebrated Cascafa del Marmore at Terni, " which," says Byron, " is worth all the cascades and torrents of Switzerland put together," is attributed to a work of Curius Dentatus, (270 B. C.,) who caused the rock to be cut through for the purpose of draining the marsh- es, and making an outlet for the Velino. Some cataracts owe their celebrity to the vast vol- 48 GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. ume of water which is poured, in an unhrokcn sheet, over a great descent, as with Niagara ; others are re- markable only for the vast height from which they fall, whether they plunge down the abyss at a single leap, or dash themselves successively from shelf to shelf till they reach the bottom of the precipice ; some, falling in a small riband-like current over the edge of tlie rock, are dispersed before they reach the ground into thin spray, forming glittering showers of brilliants, or gaudy rainbows ; others, driven forward by the force of the current, fall over in a continuous arch, between which and the bottom of the ledge from which they have fallen the visiter may pass ; and yet others are visited and admired chiefly for the picturesque beauties of the glen, the grandeur of the pi-ecipices, or the gloomy horrors of the deep chasms which sur- round them. " If it be diflicult," says Humboldt, " to describe the beauties of cataracts, it is still more diflicult to make them felt by the aid of the pencil. The impression they leave on the mind of the observer depends on the occurrence of a variety of circumstances. The volume of water must be proportioned to the height of the fall, and the scenery around must wear a wild and roman- tic aspect. The Pissevache and the Staubbach in Switzerland are lofty, but their masses of water are inconsiderable ; the Niagara and the Falls of the Rhine on the contraiy furnish an enormous column of water, but the height even of the former docs not exceed one hundred and seventy feet. A cataract sun-ounded by hills merely produces much> less eflect than the waterfall which rushes into the deep and narrow val- GE03RAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EAKTII. 19 leys of the Alps, and slill more of the Andes. Inde- pendciit of tlie height and body of the column of water, the figure of the landscape, and the aspect of the rocks, it is the luxuriant form of the trees and Iierbaceous plants, their distribution into groups or scatiered thickets, the contrasts of the craggy preci- j)ices to the freshness of tlie vegetation, which give a peculiar character to these grand scenes of nature. The Niagara, which in a norlhern sky is in the region of oaks and pines, would be still more beautiful were its drapery composed of heliconias, palms, and arbo rescent ferns." REMARKABLE FALLS IN EUROPE. Name. Gavarnie, France, Pyrenees, Fugloe, Isle of Fugloe, Norway, Staubbach, Switzerland, Doby I\Iyllin, Wales, Ginfael, Wales, E-iukan Fossen, Norway, Holme's Fall, Scotland, . Nant d'Arpenaz, Savoy, . Nemelsaskas, or Lulea, Lapland, Gray Mare's Tail, Scotland, Pissevache, Switzerland, Terni, or Velino, Roman States, Acharn, Scotland, Fyei's, do. . . . E,eici'"!nbach, Switzerland, DexiFs Bridge, Switzerland, . SchaTliausen, do. Tivoli, Roman States, 4 XX. — 5 Heij^ht in feet. 1,350 1,000 960 900 900 800 800 800 600 350 300 300 240 212 200 100 80 50 50 GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. REMARKABLE FALLS IN AMERICA. Name. Country. Heiahl in feet Fequendama, New Grenada, " 580 Pusambio, or Purace, New Grenada, 400 Montmorency, Canada, 250 Falling Spring, United States, 200 Cauterskill, do. 175 Niagara, do. 170 Tauqkanic, do. IGO Great Falls, do. 150 Chaiidiv-re, Canada, 100 Missouri, United States, 90 Guanacualtan, Mexico, 80 Passaic, United States, 70 Cahoes, do. 60 St. Anthony's, do. 40 Glenn's, do. 40 This is far from being a complete list even of the most remarkable waterfalls of these two continents , but it has been found quite impossible to give the di- mensions of many striking cataracts, particularly in America, with any approach to accuracy ; — nor have the highest known falls been mentioned here, because they are nothing more than the merest rills, and sel- dom offer any peculiar interest. Thus the little stream of Ache in Bavaria throws itself over an elevation of 2,000 feet, and there is said to be a cascade of equa» height in the island of Nukahiva. Remarable Falls in Asia. — Some of the most remarkable cataracts of Asia, with which we are ac- quainted, are the Fall of Garispa, in the Indian Chauts, IGOO feet high ; the Birra Chuki, 100 feet, and the GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 51 Ganga Chuki, 200 fcet, in the Cauvery ; and those of Bilohi, 400, Chachai, 362, Tonse, 200, and Booli, 400 feet in lieiglit, in Buadelcund. There are many beauti- ful and magnificent cascades in the Ghauts, and the Ganges, Indus, and Brahmapootra exhibit many falls which have not been described. The Cataracts of (he Nile, so much celebrated by the ancients, have an elevation of not more than ten or twelve feet. The F'alls of Niagara have been found to be gradu- ally receding from Lake Ontario; this great body of water is hurled over a ledge of hard limestone, below which is a layer of soft shale, which decays and crum- bles away, so that the superincumbent limestone is left without a foundation, and falls from time to time in large masses. The bed of the river below the falls is strewed over with the huge fragments that have been thus detached and plunged into the abyss. With- in the last forty years the Falls have receded nearly fifty yards, and there is little doubt that they were once at Queenstown, about seven miles below their actual site. Should they continue to recede at the rate above stated, or a little more than one yard annually, it will be 30,000 years before they reach Lake Erie. The following beautiful description of this stupen dous cataract, written by the late F. W. P. Green- wood, will be read with interest. " There is a power and beaut}', I may say a divini- ty, in rushing waters, felt by all who acknowledge any sympathy with nature. The mountain stream, leaping from rock to rock, and winding, foaming, and glancing through Its devious and stony channels, arrests the eye 52 GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. of the most careless or business-boimd traveller, sings to the heart and haunts the memory of the man of taste and imagination, and holds, as by some unde,- finable spell, the affections of tliose who inhabit its borders. A waterfall of even a few feet in height will enliven the dullest scenery, and lend a charm to the loveliest ; while a high and headlong cataract has always been ranked among the sublimcst objects to be found in the compass of the globe. " It is no matter of surprise, therefore, that lovers of nature perform journeys of homage to that sover- eign of cataracts, that monarch of all pouring floods, the Falls of Niagara. It is no matter of surprise, that, although situated in what might have been called, a few years ago, but cannot be now, the wilds of North America, five hundred miles from the Atlantic coast, travellers from all civilized parts of the world have encountered all the difficulties and fatigues of the path, to behold this prince of waterfalls amidst its ancient solitudes, and that, more recently, the broad highways to its dominions have been thronged. By universal consent, it has long ago been proclaimed one of the wonders of the world. It is alone in its kind. Though a waterfall, it is not to be compared with other waterfalls. In its majesty, its supremacy, and its in- fluence on the soul of man, its brotherhood is with the living ocean and the eternal hills. " From Waterloo we pass on by a level road, imme- diately on the western bank of the Niagara, and ob- serve that the river continually becomes wider, till at length it divides into two streams, which sweep round GEOGK-VrKICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. od an island several miles in length. They then unite again, forming one stream as before, only that it is in- creased in breadth and swiftness. And now the in- terest thickens, and begins to grow intense. Hitherto we had been travelling on the side of a large river, it is true, but one not much distinguished otherwise, cither by its motion, its shape, or the beauty of its borders. We are obliged to call on ourselves to con- sider where we are, and whither we are going ; for l^iagara itself seems unconscious of the grand associa- tions with which it is freighted. It moves as if un- mindful, or as not caring to put the traveller in mind, that its waters have come down through the whole length of Erie from the far away Huron, Michigan, Superior; that they are just about to rush over the wondi-ous precipice below, and then are to hasten for- ward into another majestic lake, and from it are to pass through the portals of a thousand islands, and the alternate rapids and lakes of a noble and romantic river, washing the feet of cities, and so to flow on into the all-receiving sea. We are obliged to remember this, I say ; for the unpretending waters, though pres- sing forward continually and intently, have thus far told us nothing, themselves, of their long pilgrimage behind, or the yet more eventful journey before them. But here, as they are meeting round Grand Island, they break their silence and speak, and the whole scene becomes full of spirit and meaning. Here, about three miles from the Falls, you see the whhe- crested rapids tossing in the distance before you. Here, even in the most unfavorable state of the weath- er, you hear the voice of the cataract, pervading the 54 GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. air with its low, monotoriOus, continuous roar. And here you see a column of mist rising up, like a smoke in distantly burning woods, and designating the sub- lime scene over which it is immediately hanging. I know not that I was afterward more strongly aflectcd, even by the Falls themselves, than I was by the sight of this ever changing and yet never absent guide, this cloudy pillar, this floating, evanescent, and yet eternal testimony, which pointed out to me the exact spot which had been for so many years a shrine to thou- sands, which I had heard of and read of so long, and which I had myself so often visited, though not in person, yet with my reverential wishes, with my mind, and with my heart. Childhood came back to me, with its indistinct, but highly wrought and passionate images ; maps were unrolled ; books were opened ; paintings were spread ; measurements were recalled ; all the efforts which the art of man had made, all the tributes which his spirit had offered, at the call of the great cataract ; all these associations, with other dream- like thoughts of the wilderness, the lake, and the stream, rose up unbidden and with power within me, as I steadfastly regarded that significant, far-off mist, and knew that I, too, was soon to stand on the conse crated spot, and see, and feel. " A mile or two is soon passed, and now we turn a little from the road to the right, in order to have a near view of the rapids. These occupy the whole breadth of the river, from shore to shore, and extend lialf a mile back from the Falls, and are formed by the rush of the entire body of waters down a rough bed, the descent of which in the course of this half mile is GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 55 fifty feet. Here all is tumult and impetuous haste. The view is sometliing like that of the sea in a violent gale. Thousands of waves dash eagerly forward, and indicate the interruptions which they meet with fron\ the hidden rocks hy ridges and streaks of foam. Terminating this angry picture, you distinguish the crescent rim of the British Fall, over which the tor- rent pours, and disappears. The wilderness and the solhude of the scene are strikingly impressive. Noth- ing that lives is to be seen in its whole extent. Noth- ing that values its life ever dares venture it there. The waters refuse the burden of man, and of man's works. Of this they give fair and audible warning, of which all take heed. They have one engrossing object before them, and they go to its accomplishment alone. " Returnmg to the road, we ride the last half-mile, ascending gradually, till we come to the pubhc house. A footpath through the garden at the back of the house, and down a steep and thickly wooded bank, brings us upon Table Rock, a flat ledge of limestone, forming the brink of the precipice, the upper stratum of which is a jagged shelf, no more than about a foot in thickness, jutting out over the gulf below. Here the whole scene breaks upon us. Looking up the river, we face the grand crescent, called the British oi Horseshoe Fall. Opposite to us is Goat Island, whicn divides the Falls, and lower down to the left is the American Fall. And what is the first impression made upon the beholder ? Decidedly, I should say, that of beauty ; of sovereign, majestic beauty, it is true, but still that of beauty, soul-filling beauty, rather 56 GEOGKAFIIICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. than of awful sublimity. Every thing is on so large a scale ; the height of tiie cataract is so much exceeded by its breadtii, and so much concealed by the volumes of mist which wrap and shroud its feet ; you stand so directly on the same level with the falling waters; you see so large a portion of them at a considerable dis- tance from you ; and their roar comes up so moder- ated from the deep abyss, that the loveliness of the scene, at first sight, is permitted to take precedence of its grandeur. Its coloring alone is of the most ex- quisite kind. The deep sea-green of the centre of the crescent, where it is probable the greatest mass of water falls, lit up with successive flashes of foam, and contrasted with the rich, creamy whiteness of the two sides or wings of the same crescent ; then the sober gray of the opposite precipice of Goat Island, crowned with the luxuriant foliage of its forest trees, and connected still further on with the pouring snows of the greater and less American Falls ; the agitated and foamy surface of the waters at the bottom of the Falls, followed by the darkness of their hue as they sweep along through the perpendicular gorge beyond ; the mist, floating about, and veiling objects with a softening indistinctness ; and the bright rainbow which is constant to the sun, — altogether form a coml)ina- tion of color, changing, too, with every change of light, every variation of the wind, and every hour of the day, which the painter's art cannot imitate, and which nature herself has perhaps only efTected here, " And the motion of these Falls, how wonderfully fine it is ! how graceful, how stately, how calm ! There is nothing in it hurried or headlong, as yon GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 57 might have supposed. The eye is so long in measuring the vast, and yet unacknowledged height, that they seem to move over ahnost slowly ; the central and most vo- luminous portion of the Horseshoe even goes down silently. The truth is, that pompous phrases cannot describe these Falls. Calm and deeply-meaning words should alone be used in speaking of them. Any thing like hyperbole would degrade them, if they could be degraded. But tliey cannot be. Neither the words nor the deeds of man degrade or disturb them. There they pour over, in their collected might and dignified flowing, steadily, constantly, as they always have been pouring since they came from the hollow of His hand, and you can add nothing to them, nor can you tak any thing from them. " As I rose, on the morning following my arrival, and went to the window for an early view, a singular fear came over me that the Falls might have passed away, thougli their sound was in my ears. It was, to be sure, rather the shadow of a fear thau a fear, and reason dissipated it as soon as it was formed. But the bright things of earth are so apt to be fleeting, and we are so liable to lose what is valued as soon as it is bestowed, that I believe it was a perfectly natural feel- ing which suggested to me for an instant, that I had en- joyed quite as much of such a glorious exhibition as I deserved, and that I had no right to expect that it would continue as long as I might be pleased to behold. But the Falls were there, with their full, regular, and beautiful (lowing. The clouds of spray and mist were now dense and high, and completely concealed the opposite shores ; but as the day advanced, and the 58 GEOGRAFHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. ' beams of tho sua increased in power, they were thin- ned and contracted. Presently a ihunder-sliowcr rose up from the west, and passed directly over us : and soon another came, still heavier than the pre- ceding. And now I was more impressed than ever with the peculiar motion of the Fall ; not, however, because it experienced a change, but because it did not. The Hghtning gleamed, the thunder pealed, the rain fell in torrents ; the storms were grand ; but the Fall, if I may give its expression a language, did not heed them at all ; the rapids above raged no more and no less than before, and the Fall poured on with the same quiet solemnity, with the same equable intent- ness, undisturbed by the lightning and rain, and listen- ing not to the loud thunder. " About half a mile below the Horseshoe Fall, a com- modious road has lately been cut in a slanting direc- tion, down the side of the perpendicular cliif, and through the solid rock, to the river. Here we find a regular ferry, and are conveyed in a small boat across the stream, which is now narrowed to a breadth of about twelve hundred feet, to the American side. The passage is perfectly safe, and, though short, delightful, as it affords a superb view of both the Falls above, and of the dark river below. The cm-rent is not very rapid, and near the American side actually sets up to- Avard the Falls ; by the help of which eddy the boat regains what it had lost in the middle of the stream. "We land almost directly at the feet of the American Fall, and by walking a little way to the right, may phice ourselves in its spray. Now look up, and the height will not disappoint you. Now attend to the GEOGUAPIIICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 59 voice of the cataract, and it will fill your soul with awe. It seems as if the ' waters which are above the firmament' were descending from the heights of heaven, and as if ' the fountains of the great deep were broken up ' from below. The noise, which per- mits free conversation to those who are on the bank above, is here imperative and deafening. It resembles the perpetual rolling of near thunder, or the uninter- rupted discharge of a battery of heavy ordnance, mingled with a strange crashing and breaking sound. This resemblance to the roar of artillery is heightened by the sight of the large bodies of spray, which are continually and with immense force exploded from the abyss. The impression of superior height is gained, not so much from the fact that the American Fall is actually ten or twelve feet higher than the British, as from your having a complete profile view of the one, from brink to base, which you cannot well obtain of the other. " Flights of secure wooden steps bring us to the top of the bank, where we again stand on a level with tlie descending Falls. We soon found that the greatest variety of interest was on this, the American side. The village of Manchester is situated on the rapid, just above the Fall. A bridge is thrown boldly ovei the rushing and ' arrowy ' rapid to a small island, called Bath Island, where there arc one or two dwellings and a paper-mill ; and from this spot another bridge runs whh equal boldness to Goat Island. The whole breadth of the space thus traversed is one thousand and seventy-two feet. " Goat Island is a paradise. I do not believe that 60 GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH, there is a spot in the world, which, witliin the same space, comprises so much grandeur and bcauly. It is but about a mile in circumference, and in that mile you have a forest of tall old trees, many of them draped with climbing and cleaving ivy ; a rich va- riety of wild shrubs and plants ; several views of the rapids ; an opportunity to pass without discomfort under the smaller American Fall, and the very finest view, I will venture to say, of the great Crescent, or Horse- shoe Fall. Turn to the left, as you enter this Eden, and you come out into a cleared and open spot, on which you discern a log-hut, with vines round its door and windows, and a little garden in front of it, running down to the water's edge ; a flock of sheep feeding quietly, or reposing pleasantly, under scattered clumps of graceful trees ; while, beyond this scene of rural repose, you see the whole field of the rapids, bearing down in full force upon this point of their division, as if determined to sweep it away. Or, turn to the right, and threading the shady forest, step aside to the mar- gin of the smaller American Fall, and bathe your hands, if you please, in its just leaping waters. Then, pursuing the circuit of the island, descend a spiral flight of stairs, and, treading cautiously along a narrow footpath, cut horizontally in the side of the cliff, enter the magnificent hall formed by the falling flood, the bank of which you have just left, and command 3'onr nerves for a few moments, that, standing as you do about midway in the descent of the Fall, you may look up, eighty feet, to its arched and crystal roof, and down, eighty feet, on its terrible and misty and re- Bounding floor. You will never forget that sight and sound. GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH, 61 "Retrace your steps to llu; upper bank, and then, if your strength holds out, proceed a sliort way further, to the enjoyment of a view, ah-eady referred to, which excels every other in this place of many wonders. It is obtained from a bridge or platform, which has re- cently been thrqwn out over some rocks, and is car- ried to the very brink of the Horseshoe Fall, and even projects beyond it ; so that the spectator, at the end of the j)!atform, is actually suspended over it. And if he is alone, and gives way to his feelings, he must drop upon his knees, for the grandeur of the scene is over- powering. The soul is elevated, and at the same time subdued, as in an awful and heavenly presence. Deity is there. The brooding and commanding Spirit is tlu>re. ' The Lord is upon many waters.' The heights and the depths, the shadows and the sunlight, the foam, the mist, the rainbows, the gushing showers of diamonds, the beauty and the power and the majes- ty all around and beneath', environ the spirit with holi- est influences, and without violence compel it to adore. ' Deep calleth unto deep.' The cataract, from its mysterious depths, calleth with its thunder, back to the deep lake, and up to the deep sky, and forward to the deep ocean, and far inward to the deep of man's soul. And the answer of the lake, and the answer of the sky, and the answer of the ocean, are praise to the Maker, praise to Him who sitteth above the water- flood, praise to Amighty God! And where is the soul, which will not also hear that call, and answer it even with a clearer and louder answei, and cry, ' Praise to the Creator, praise to the infinite and holy and bles- sed God ! ' " XX. — 6 62 GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. Springs. — These are formed by the percolation of waters through the earth and rocks, which descend from higher to lower levels, and flow out at openings which they fuid or force for themselves. They are almost all impregnated with some foreign ingredients, which render them more agreeable to the taste, and more nutritious, than pure rain-water. But it is only those waters which contain such a portion of foreign matter as gives them a sensible flavor, and a specific action upon the animal economy, to which we give the name of mineral waters. The number of metals, earths, acids, and alkalis, held in solution by different springs, comprehends al- most all known substances ; but the most common and abundant are lime, iron, magnesia, silica, alumine, soda, and the carbonic and sulphuric acids. Mineral springs are divided, in respect of temperature, into the cold and the thermal or warm springs. In re- gard to their ingredients, they are commonly divided mto four classes; the acidulous or carbonated; the saline ; the chalybeate or ferruginous ; and the sulphure- ous. Those waters which contain carbonic acid in its free slate, or in combination in excess with a base, are call- ed acidulous or carbonated waters. They are distin- guished by tiicir slightly acid taste, and by their spark- ling when they are poured from one vessel to another; both of which properties they lose on exposure to the air. Beside carbonic acid they generally contain com- mon salt, and some of the earthy carbonates. To this class of waters belong those of Vichi and Mont d'Or in France ; the famous Seltzer waters of GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. C3 Niederselters, in Nassau ; the Carlsbad Springs in Bohemia ; the Sweet Springs in Monroe county, Virgin- ia, &c. Tlic sulphureous waters are impregnated with sul- phuretted hydrogen. They are distinguished by their odor, and by their causing a piece of silver immersed in them to turn black. Beside sulphuretted hydrogen, they contain alkaline and earthy sulphates and muriates, and they may be subdivided into two kinds ; those which have sulphuretted hydrogen in a free state, and those in which it is combined with an alkali or an earth. The general effects of these waters are stimu- lant, and they are more often used in the form of a bath than internally. They are serviceable in gout and rheumatism, in sprains and bruises, in cutaneous disor- ders, &c. Among the sulphureous springs may be mentioned those of Aix-la-Chapelle, in Rhenish Prussia ; of Enghien, in France ; of Harrowgale, in England ; of Moffat, in Scotland ; the White Sulphur Springs of Greenbrier county, the Red Sulphur of Giles county, and the Salt Sulphur of Monroe county, Virginia; the Olympian Springs and the Blue Licks, in Kentucky, &ic. Chalybeate waters contain iron, and are known by their peculiar taste, and by their becomirg black when mixed with an infusion of nutgalls. In some, the iron is combined whh sulphuric acid, in more with carbonic acid ; when this is in excess, the waters possess acid properties, and form acidulous chalybeate waters. Chalybeate waters are tonic and aperient, and are used with advantage in cases of debility and chronic diseases. Among the most noted springs of this class 64 GEOGRAPHICAL VIKW OF TIIK EARTH. are those of Tunbridge and Brighton, in England ; of Spa, in Belgium ; of Pyrmont, in Waldeck ; the fourteen springs of Langenschwalbach, in Nassau ; the springs of Ballston ; Bedford, York, and Brandy wine Springs, in Pennsylvania ; the Yellow Spring, in Ohio, &c. Saline waters are those which contain the saline in- gredients generally found in mineral waters, but which have very little or no iron or sulphuretted hydrogen, and have not carbonic acid in excess. These are subdivid- ed into alkaline, containing alkali in a free state, or com- bined with carbonic acid ; hard waters, or those which contain carbonate or sulphate of lime ; salt waters, in which salt abounds ; and purgative waters, which con- tain chiefly sulphate of magnesia, or Epsom salt. The most celebrated thermal saline waters are those of Bath, Buxton, and Bristol, in England ; of Dunblane and Pitcailhley, in Scotland ; Plombieres and Bourbon- Lancy, in France; Carlsbad and Tcplitz, in Germany; Lucca and St. Julian, in Italy; and the Warm Springs of North Carolina. Among the cold saline springs are those of Saratoga, in New York, and of Ilarrodsburg and Grenviile, in Kentucky ; Epsom and Cheltenham, Leamington, Scar- borough, and Malvern, in England; and Sedlitz and Seidschutz, in Bohemia. When there is a considerable quantity of carbonic acid, they become more grateful to the taste, and when iron is present, as is sometimes the case, they acquire tonic and stimulant powers. Thermal waters include individual springs of all the classes ; a thermal sjiring being one which, what- ever are its chemical properties, possesses a leniper- iture more or less elevated above that of the rcirion in GEOGPiAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 65 which it is situated, and the changes of which do not coincide with those of tlie external atmosphere. TABLt OF THERMAL WATEK Name. Country. San Pedro Dosal, Portugal, . Chaves, . u Vic, . ■ . France, . Vichi, . 11 Bourbon les Bains, u TepHtz, . Austria, Carlsbad, a Wisbaden, Nassau, Schlangenbad u Aix-la-Chapclle, Prussia, Baden, Baden, PiscarelH, Naples, Geyser, Iceland, . Buxton, . England, Bristol, (( Bath, (( St. Michael, Azores, . Hot Springs, . Arkansas, Hot Springs, Virginia, Warm Springs, North Carolina, Sweet Springs, Virginia, Sans Souci, New York, . Chichimaquillo, . Mexico, . St. Lucia, West Indies, Eaux Bouillantes, Martinique, Onoto, Venezuela, . Trincheras, . u Cuenca, . Equator, 5 6* 66 GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. Lakes. — A lake is an inland body of water not conneclcd with the ocean or any of its branches. In regard to the position of their beds, there are two classes of lakes ; those formed in deep hollows among the mountains, and fed by springs or torrents ; and those formed in level countries by the surplus water of rivers or in consequence of the want of a general declivity in the ground. Thus there is a system of the former class in the great Alpine girdle of the old continent, in- cluding the lakes of the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Apen- nines, and those of the Taurus, Caucasus, and Altaic chains ; to the north of this great mountain band are the numerous lakes of the vast Northern plain of Europe and Asia, belonging to the latter class, and comprising the numerous lakes of Prussia, Sweden, Russia, and Siberia ; to the south of the mountainous zone, in Africa, for instance, the lakes are few. There is a similar disposition in the New World ; a chain of mountain lakes accompanies the Andes through their whole course, including Titicaca, Nicaragua, Chapala, the small lakes of the Mexican valley, Tim- panogos, &c., and while the great eastern plains of South America are nearly destitute of them, the regions around the Hudson contain an astonishing number of lakes, corresponding in number, character, and geo- graphical situation to those which skirt the shores of the Baltic and the Frozen Ocean. Another division of lakes is founded upon the man- ner in which they receive or discharge their waters, ana in this point of view they form four classes : — 1. Those which receive streams of water, and have an outlet to the ocean are the most numerous and extensive. 2. Those which receive rivers, without having any visi GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 67 ble outlet, such us the Caspian Sea, Lake Tchad, m the interior of Africa, «S«:c. 3. Those whicli jeceive no run- ning water, but havje an outlet ; these are fed by springs. 4. Those which neither receive running water, nor have an outlet ; these are small. Lakes are also distinguished, according to the quality of their water, into saline and fresh ; those which have no outlet, and those situated in a region, whose soil is im- pregnated with salt, are of the latter class. EUROPEAN LAKES. Sq. Miles. Sq. Miles. Ladoga, (Russia,) 6,350 Lake of Constance, , 290 Wener, (Sweden,) 2,150 Lake of Ilmen, 275 Saima, (Finland,) 1,610 Garda, 180 Peipus, (Russia,) 850 Maggiore, 150 Wetter, (Sweden,) 850 Neufchatel, 115 Mceler, 760 Lucerne, 100 Lake of Geneva, 340 ASIATIC LAKES. Aral, 9,930 (?) Van, 1,960 Baikal, 7,540 (?) Urmiah, 760 Palkaii, 3,696 Dead Sea, 500 AFRICAN LAKES. Lake Tchad, • (?) Dembea, (?) Maravi, (?) Dibble, (?) AMERICAN LAKES. Superior, 35,000 Athabasca, 6,000 Huron, 20,000 Erie, 10,000 Great Bear Lake, (?) Ontario, 7,200 Winnipeg, 10,000 Titlcaca, 6,500 Slave Lake, 12,000 Nicaragua, 5,000 Michigan, 16,000 68 GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. The following lines, descriptive of the largest mass of fresli water in the worid, muy serve to direct the attention of the reader to this sublime and beautiful object, in the scenery of our own continent : — LAKE SUPERIOR. Father of lakes ! thy waters bend Beyond the eagle's utmost view, When, throned in heaven, he sees thee send Back to the sky its world of blue. Boundless and deep, the forests weave Their twilight shade thy borders o'er, And threatening clifi!:;, Iil-,e giants, heave Their rugged forms along thy shore. Pale Silence, 'mid thy hollow caves, With listening car in sadness broods, Or startled Echo o'er thy waves Sends the hoarse wolf-notes of thy woods. Nor can the light canoes, that glide Across thy breast like things of air, Chase from thy lone and level tide The spell of stillness, deepening there. Yet round this waste of wood and wave. Unheard, unseen, a spirit lives. That, breathing o'er each rock and cave, To all a wild, strange aspect gives. The thunder-riven oak, that flings Its grisly arms athwart the sky, A sudden, startling image brings To the lone traveller's kindled eye. The gnarled and braided boughs, that shov7 Their dim forms in the forest shade, GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 69 Like wrestling serpents seem, and throw Fantastic liorrors tlirougli tlie glade. Tlie very eclioes round this shore Have caught a strange and gibhering tone, For tiiey liave told the war-whoop o'er, Till the wild chorus is their own. Wave of the wilderness, adieu '. Adieu, ye rocks, ye wilds and woods '. Roll on, thou element of blue, And fill these awful solitudes ! Thou hast no tale to tell of man, — God is thy theme. Ye sounding caves, — Whisper of Him, whose mighty plan Deems as a bubble all your waves ! The Ocean. — This moy be described as a sheet of water, resting in the hollows of the solid structure of our planet, and covering not less, probably, than two thirds of the entire surface. From calculations, its greatest depth is believed to be about 30,000 feet, or between four and five miles, which, it may be remark- ed, is near the greatest height of any land above the surface of the ocean. But the greatest depth which has been ascertained by actual measurement is not more than 5000 feet ; for such is the pressure and density of the liquid mass at that depth, that no sounding-lead, or apparatus possessed by mariners, can possibly be made to sink below that point from the surface. The quantity of water composing the ocean, by the unalterable laws of evaporation and condensation, re- mains always at a fi.xed point, there being neither increase nor decrease. It has been remarked by Laplace, that IPd GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. if the existing waters of the ocean were increased only one fourth, the eartli would be drowned, with the ex- ception of some of the highest mountains ; and tliat if, on the other hand, the waters were diminished in tlie same proportion, the largest rivers would dwindle to the capacity of brooks, and some of the principal arms of the sea would entirely disajipear, while at the same time the earth would be deprived of its due proportion of humidity, and the face of nature be dried up and rendered desolate. Broad, therefore, as are the limits of the ocean, they are only in exact agreement with the wants and arrangements of nature in the habitable por- tion of the globe, and as such afford a convincing testi- mony of the power, wisdom, and goodness of the Divine Creator. The bottom or bed of the ocean is marked by the same irregularities of surface as the dry ground. It consists of heights and hollows, rocky protuberances and caverns, hills and vales, sandbanks and reefs, of every imaginable form and extent. Like the land, also, it bears a luxuriant vegetation, consisting of plants of various kinds, all of which are exactly suited to their respective situations. The sea has likewise its tribes of animals, from the huge whale down to the minute coral insect, by whose incessant labors the hardest rocky substances arc constructed and reared to the surface of the waters. When the more elevated protuberances in the bed of the ocean are raised above the surface level, they assume, as is well known, the character of islands, and when of a largo size, of continents. Thus, the tracts of dry land arc in one sense the tops of moun- tains rising from the bosom of the deep. How islands GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 7i are formed, somelimes by the action of volcanoes burst- ing upwards in showers of lava in the midst of the sea., and sometimes by the gradual accumulation of matter deposited by coralline insects ; and also how tracts of land are added to continents, and also sometimes laken from them, by the influence of currents, rivers, and other natural causes, are explained by geology. Tides. — The waters of the sea may exhibit to the eye a calm, unruffled surface, when not agitated by winds, but they are never altogether still. Their ceaseless motion, which has the important effect of preserving them from stagnation, is caused by two great risings and depres- sions, or flowings and ebbings, of the waters, in the course of twenty-four hours, known by the name of tides. The two tides or flowings of the sea are ex- perienced daily all over the globe, though in some seas, from peculiar local causes, they are less powerful than in other places. It is not a little remarkable, that the condition of high water or full tide occurs at direct- ly opposite sides of the earth at the same time. When it is high water at longitude 0, it is also high water at longitude 180, and so on with every other two opposite points of the earth, on the same parallel of latitude. It has been ascertained, beyond all reasonable doubt, that the tides are caused by the attractive influence of the moon. By the universal law of attraction or gravi- tation, all masses of matter have a tendency to be at- tracted or drawn towards each other. The moon, therefore, as a mass of matter, in passing round the earth, has a tendency to draw the earth after it, or out of its natural relative position, and it really does so to a small extent. As it passes round, it draws up the 72 GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. waters in a protuberance, or, in common language, draws a huge wave after it. But it also draws the land beneath the protuberance, and so causes the oppo- site side of the globe to be drawn away from the ocean, leaving the waters there to form a similar protuberance, or high wave. In the one case, the water is drawn directly up or towards the moon ; in the other, the water is in some shape left behind by the land being pulled away from it. In both, a similar effect is produc- ed ; two high tides are caused at opposite exti'emities of the earth. Where the higher part of either of these great billows strikes our coast, we have the phenome- non of high water ; and when the lower touches us, it is low water. Each of the waves is brought over any given place in the circumference of the earth in twenty- four hours, so as to cause high water twice a day. The sun is also known to have a certain attractive in- fluence on the waters of the ocean, but, from the great distance of that luminary, the effect is comparatively small. But when this minor influence of the sun coin- cides with that of the moon, or acts in the same way, we perceive a marked increase in the tides ; on such occasions we have what are called spring or large tides. When the solar and lunar attractions act in op- position, we have neap or small tides. The spring tides happen twice a month, when the moon is at full and change ; and the neap when the moon is in the middle of its orbit, between those two points. A tide requires six hours to rise, which it does by small impulses or ripplirgs of the water on the shore, and six hours to ebb or fill ; but every succcssiv! high water is from twenty to twenty-seven minutes later than GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 73 Lie preceding, or, on an average, about fifty minutes for two tides, in consequence of the earth requiring that time above the twenty-four hours to bring any given point again beneath the moon. The tides are thus re- tarded by the same reason that the moon rises fifty minutes later every day. It is evident that the tides will be greatest at that point of the earth's surface which is nearest to the moon, or where the latter is vertical. She is so between the tropics ; and accordingly the tides are there greatest, and they diminish as we ap- proach either pole. It is further to be remarked, that the moon does not anywhere draw up the tides imme- diately. Three hours elapse before the waters are raised, in consequence of the law of inertia, or a dispo- sition which every body has to continue in the condi- tion of rest or motion in which it happens to be placed. This stubbornness to resist the moon's influence is only overcome by a three hours' action upon the waters ; and thus the tidal wave is always three hours behind the moon in its passage. Twice a year, namely, in March and September, the tides are higher than at other times, because then the attraction of the sun and moon are strongest. In some of the friths or arms of the sea on the east coast of Scotland, it has been occasionally noticed that there have been four high waters in the twenty-four hours. These, however, are not simple tides. The double risings are caused by the irregular passage of the tidal wave from the Atlantic round the north and south points of the island of Great Britain. When that portion of the wave which proceeds by the south reaches the east coast sooner than that by the north, or vice versa, there will XX. — 7 74 GEOGKAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EAKTH. be two risings of the water instead of one. Similar phenomena may be observed in other parts of the earth. In the Mediterranean Sea the tides are small, and in some places scarcely perceptible ; this is caused by the general confinement of that inland branch of tlie ocean by the Straits of Gibraltar, w hich prevent the full action of the tidal wave either in its rising or reces- sion. Currents. — Besides being affected by the regular motion of the tides, the ocean, in many parts of its ex tended bounds, is influenced by currents, which act con tinually in particular directions. Currents are the re suit of various causes, such as temperature, winds peculiar construction of coasts and inlets, but chiefly as is believed, of the rotary motion of the earth. The globe in its diurnal motion leaves, as it were, the fluid behind ; and hence there is a perpetual flow of the sea from the western coast of Europe and Africa towards the eastern landboard, as it is called, of America, and from the west of America to the eastern coast of Asia. This movement is chiefly confined to the tropics, unless where the sea is turned aside by the land, and caused to diverge towards the north or south. If we start, in a survey of this motion, from the western coast of America, we find it producing a constant current across the vast expanse of the Pacific, till it is turned off by Asia and Australia. A great division of its force is directed through the seas on both sides of the latter continent, and so on through the Indian Ocean, and round the Cape of Good Hope, till it reaches the free expanse of the Atlantic, across which it proceeds n the same manner as across the Pacific. The current GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 75 of the Atlantic strikes the coast of Brazil, and breaks at Cape St. Augustine into two divisions, one of which proceeds round Cape Horn into the Pacific, while the other advances through the Caribbean Sea, and so on into the Gulf of Mexico. This latter branch conspires, with the vast issue of fresh waters which pours into the Gulf of IMexico, to raise the level of that sea above that of the neighbouring ocean, and, causing the surplus to force its way out between Florida and Cuba, produces the cele- brated Gulf Stream, which is perhaps the most power- ful sea current in the world. It is obvious, that to the mariner currents must be of great importance. From Portugal, for instance, ships have sailed to the Bight of Benin, on the Guinea coast, being 150 leagues, in two days, though they could not return in less than seven weeks. It is also common for vessels to descend to the latitude of the Canary Islands, in order to get into the tropical current across the Atlantic, which carries them to America in a compara- tively short time : it was by this current that Columbus was carried so smoothly on in his first voyage to the new continent. The Pacific, it is said, can be crossed in this way in about ten weeks, being at the rate of a thou- sand miles per week ; and some mariners have expressed an opinion that China might be reached by this route in less time than by the shorter course round the Cape of Good Hope. For the same reason that the sea flows from east to west, the air has a tendency, when not counteracted by other causes, to move in the same direction. The earth in its motion leaves the air, like the sea, a little behind it ; in other words, does not carry it so fast for- 76 GEOGKAPHICAL VIEAV OF THE EARTH. ward : hence uliat are called the trade winds, which, operating in the same direction with the sea currents, increase the facility of navigation to the westward in a very great degree. It is impossible to avoid remark- ing, that these natural phenomena, which, it is to be supposed, might have been counteracted or neutraliz- ed from the beginning, must have been designed for some end useful and necessary in the economy of the woi'ld. Perhaps, like the diffusive powers given to the seeds of certain plants, they were intended to aid in the dispersion of the human race over the globe. It is well known that population exists in many places, which appear cut off from all connection with others by seas that must have been impassable by navigators m the early ages of their art. Men could only be drifted to such places in early ages by the currents of the sea and air ; and thus the cultivation of large and important regions must have commenced much earlier than would have otherwise been the case. Besides the grand equatorial or tropical current, there is one of a less decided character from the poles to the equator. The sea under the tropics evaporates to a greater extent than elsewhere, by the influence of a vertical sun. The vapors are apt to proceed towards the north and south, where they descend in rain. A surplus of water is thus produced in the high latitudes, which naturally flows back towards the equator. Hence a constant but comparatively slight flow from the north and south towards that warmer region of the earth. Under the influence of this stream, large masses of ice are constantly becoming detached from the polar stores, and drifted to the tropics. In some of the bays on the GEOCiKAPIIICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 77 north side of Iceland, this frigid substance comes in vast quantities, insomuch as to choke them up to the depth of 500 feet. What is still more strange, these masses of ice are sometimes mixed up with trees, some of which are known to be the produce of the torrid zone in America : this is accounted for by the action of the northern division of the great current which parts at Cape St. Augustine. That division, after rushing into and out of the Gulf of Mexico, proceeds northward to Newfoundland, and thence at a high latitude returns athwart the Atlantic, finally sweeping along the western coasts of Europe, and rejoining the current which gave its first impulse. By this current, it is supposed, American timber may easily be carried to the northern shores of Iceland. The operation of the tides is less observable in the great currents we have alluded to, than in those which prevail in the more secluded seas. The abstraction of water from a secluded sea by the recess of the tide, and the rush inwards produced by its flow, are suffi- cient of themselves to cause veiy impetuous currents, more particularly in the narrow channels by which the inland seas are connected with the ocean. We find it stated, in a pamphlet respecting the condition of the Orkney Islands, that the Pentland Frith, which separates the continent of Great Britain from Orkney, " has no fewer than four-and-twenty contrary currents of the tide at the flood of spring, besides numerous sets and eddies, which, under the local names of icelh, swelches, and roosts, boil more madly on the Orcadian shore, than ever did witch's caldron on the kindred coast of Norway, if we may believe old tradition and Bishop 7* 78 GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. Pontoppedan. ' The Boar of Papa,' at the opposite exireme of Orkney, is another terrible tide ; when he gets a vessel in his tusks, he shakes the masts out, — an operation which, in the country phrase, goes by the name of hackling.'''' The contrariety of influences which are sometimes brought into play by polar and equatorial currents, and those produced by the tides, occasion many jjhenome- na extremely perplexing, and sometimes very dangei'- ous, to the navigator. In the Cattegat, by which the Baltic is connected with the German Ocean, one cur- rent always goes in by the side next Jutland, while another issues forth by that nearest to Sweden. In like manner, a current seems to proceed along the eastern coast of Britain towards the south, while an- other, flowing in an opposite direction, advances along the coast of Holland. What is still more curious, under-currents are sometimes found going in a contra- ry direction to those upon the surface. At the Straits of Gibraltar, it is said there is always a surface cur- rent going in, as if to supply a want in the Mediter- ranean, while, at a certain depth, there is another going out. So strong and so steady is this contrariety in the Caribbean Sea, that a boat may be moored by drop- ping a heavy subtance to a certain depth ; the upper current impels the boat one way, while the under one draws the sunk object another, and between the two the boat is steadied. Two cun'ents of equal force, but of different direc- tions, meeting in a narrow passage or gut, will cause a whirlpool, a phenomenon which has ignorantly been said to be produced by subterranean rivers, gulfs, GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF TPIE EAUTH. 79 cliasms, &ic., but essentially is only an cdcly, produced by the contact of two currents, meeting on a centre. The whirlpool named the Euripides, near the coast of Greece, alternately absorbs and rejects the water seven times in twenty-four hours. Charybdis, in the Straits of Sicily, absorbs and rejects the water thrice in twenty- four hours ; and the Maelstrom, on the coast of Nor- \vay, which is considerably the largest, absorbs, every six hours, water, ships, whales, in short, every thing that approaches its malignant influence, and the next six hours is employed in casting them uj) again. These eddies are sometimes augmented by the force (if contending tides, or by the action of the v/inds. They draw vessels along, dash them upon rocks, or engulf then! in their furious vortices, the wreck not appearing until some time afl'^r. ^V^VTERSP0XJTS. — Marine waterspouts are caused by the action of atmospheric currents, and are as danger- ous in their effects as they are wonderful in appear- ance. Malta Brun thus describes them : — " Under- neath a dense cloud, the sea becomes agitated with violent commotions ; the waves dart rapidly towards the centre of the agitated mass of water, on arriving at which they are dispersed into aqueous vapors, and rise whirling round in a spiral direction towards the cloud. This conical ascending column is met by another descending column, which leans towards the water, and joins with it. In many cases the marine column is from fifty to eighty fathoms in diameter near its base. Both columns, however, diminish towards the middle, where they unite ; so that here they are not more than three or four feet in diameter. The en- 80 GEOGRAPHICAL \IEW OF THE EARTH. tire column presents itself in the shape of a hollow cylinder, or tube of glass empty within. It glides over the sea without any wind being felt ; indeed, several have been seen at once following different di- rections. When the cloud and the marine base of the waterspout move with unequal velocities, the lower cone is often seen to incline sideways, or even to bend, and finally to burst in pieces. A noise is then heard like the noise of a cataract falling in a deep valley. Lightning frequently issues from the very bosom of ihe waterspout, particularly when it breaks ; but no ihunder is ever heard." Sailors, to prevent the imminent danger which their vessels would be exposed to by coming in contact with diese tremendous columns, discharge upon them a cannon-ball, which, passing through them, causes them invariably to burst, and consequently removes all chance of injury connected with them. This phe- nomenon is accounted for in the following manner : — Two winds meet ; a vortex ensues ; any cloud which happens to lie between them is condensed into a coni- cal form, and turned round with great velocity ; this whirling motion drives from the centre of the cloud all the particles contained in it ; a vacuum is thereby produced, and water, or any other body lying beneath this vacuum, is carried into it upon the usual and well known principle. The cannon-ball, breaking this cylinder, which is always partly hollow, causes it to fall to pieces, in the same manner as a touch upon the surface of a soap-ball reduces the resplendent mass to a drop of common water. Temperature of the Sea. — The temperature of GEOGKAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 81 the sea, like that of the au-, is liable to be aflccted by the latitude and the season of the year, but not to nearly so great an extent as the air. Within the trop- ics, where the season has hardly any influence, it is generally found at about 80° or 81° of Fahrenheit's thermometer, being somewhat more, in general, than the warmth of the neighbouring air, which is deprived to a certam extent of its heat, in order to carry on the process of evaporation. Taking the month of March as one of those during which the heat of the sun must be equally determined in both directions by latitude, it appears that in that month the sea has been found, at Lat. 11° 32' S., of 80.6° Fahrenheit ; at Lat. 31° 34' S., of 75.7° ; at Lat. 40° 3G' S., of 59.9° ; though in some instances it has been found several degrees more or less at the same season, and under nearly the same latitude. The chief cause of the variation is the per- petual flow of water from the poles to the equator, which has been already explained. It has been pretty nearly ascertained, that, in the tropical seas, it ranges about 9° of Fahrenheit ; in the middle of the temper- ate zone about 12° ; and after that decreases with a more rapid and more equable gradation. The tempera- ture of the sea is also affected by its depth. In deep seas, between the tropics, the heat diminishes towards the bottom ; while, in more frigid latitudes, it is some- times observed to become warmer. The sea is a bad conductor of heat ; the solar rays can only penetrate about three hundred feet below the surface, nor does the light descend any farther. A small difference is discovered between the observations on temperature in the two hemispheres. For the first 25° towards the 6 82 GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. south, the decrease of heat is slower, and after that more rapid, than towards the north. It must be evident to every one who considers the gi'eat mass of waters composing the ocean, and the interchange of position which must always be taking place, to a greater or less extent, between the upper and warmer parts and the lower and colder, that this comparative equability of temperature is unavoidable, even if there were no other causes to account for it. The uses of that equability are still more obvious, and must add greatly to the wonder we always experience when the economy of nature is minutely traced. By this equability, the natural result of high latitude is more or less corrected, for the advantage of the human beings who happen to be placed there. A milder air breathing from the sea softens the climate all over the adjacent land, and produces a freshness which is of the greatest service to vegetation. On the other hand, in those torrid regions where both animated and vegeta- ble nature is apt to sink beneath the vertical rays of the sun, the cooling breath of the ocean comes, gener- ally at fixed times, reviving the parched soil, and com- municating to man sensations of I'elief and pleasure, which are hardly to be imagined by those who have not experienced them. Saline Property of the Sea. — The saline prop- erty of the sea has never been scientifically accounted for. Some have alleged that it is caused by fossil or rock salt at the bottom, while others maintain that the sea is a homogeneous salt body, that its waters were created, and have continued, and ever will continue, in this saline condition, in the same manner that the atmos- phere has been created and exists as a compound body. GEOGRArHIC^\L VIEW OF THE EARTH. 83 The proportion which the saHne matters bear to the water varies considerably. The water of the Atlantic Ocean, within the tropics, contains about one twenty-fourth of its weight of saline matters. There, from the great heat, very great evaporation must go on at the surface ; and from the great mass of water, particularly far out at sea, the influence of rivers in counteracting the effect of the evaporation, by adding, fresh water, must be less than usual. In the Frith of Forth, the saline matters form only one thirtieth of the weight of the water. There, less fresh water is re- moved by evaporation, the climate being much colder ; and the fresh water supplied by rivers is greater in pro- portion, so that the salt matter bears a smaller propor- tion to the whole. There arc chiefly four matters con- tained in sea-water, — common salt (muriate of soda), glauber salt (sulphate of soda), muriate of magnesia, and muriate of lime. Potash has been detected in sea-water ; and it also contains extremely small quan- tities of two simple substances lately discovered, name- ly, iodine and bromine, in union with hydrogen. Dis- regarding all except the four first, the composition of the water of the Atlantic Ocean, as analyzed by Dr. Marcet, may be stated as follows. The quantity ex- amined was 500 grains. Water . . . . . 478.420 Muriate of soda . . . 13.3 Sulphate of soda . . . 2.33 Muriate of lime . . . 0.995 Muriate of magnesia . . 4.955 500 grains. 84 GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. Thus it is scon that muriate of soda, or common saU, is the principal solid ingredient in the waters of the ocean, and that muriate of magnesia is the next in importance. Sea-Avater is to a certain degree more dense, or of greater specific gravity, than pure water. According to Dr. Arnot, " a sliip draws less water, or swims lighter, by one thirty-fifth, in the dense, salt %vater of the sea, than in the fresh water of a river ; and for the same reason, a man swimming supports himself more easily in the sea than in a river." Sea- water freezes at 28° of Fahrenheit's thermometer. Fresh water, as is well known, expands equally in its volume, 8° above or below 40°, that is to say, it ex- pands by an increase of temperature up to 48°, or by a diminution of temperature down to 32°, the common freezing point, when it assumes the ciystallized or icy form. Thus 40° is the point of mean density, or of smallest volume, in fresh water. By the recent ex- j)eriments of chemists, it is found that sea-water does not expand by a diminution of temperature down to 32°, because it is reluctant to assume the ciystallized form, and when it does freeze at 28°, its ice is very imperfect, being full of pores and interstices, and composed in a great degree of thin spicular flakes, inclosing drops of a strong briny liquid which cannot be crystallized. Sea-water, on being boiled, or exposed in small quan- tities to the sun's rays, evaporates, and leaves a resi- duum of common salt; and the manufacture of this article, by means of pans and furnaces, is carried on upon the shores of almost every civilized countr}'. Innumerable have been the attempts to render sea- GEOGRArmCAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 85 water useful as an clement of food or drink, in cases of great scarcity of fresh water on shipboard, but in no case has a perfectly pure or sweet water been pro- cured. Filtration has no effect, because the saline matters in the water are chemically united with it, and cannot be removed by means merely mechanical. The process of purifying the water to the best advantage consists in distilling it, the vapor being gathered and condensed into a liquid. But this liquid is not entirely fresh or sweet, in consequence of its containing cer- tain gaseous matters ; and, therefore, after distillation, the liquid should for a length of time be exposed to the action of the atmosphere, so as to allow the escape as far as possible of the gases with which it is charged. A small quantity of potash or soap put into the water previous to distillation, is said to be useful in purifying it, and rendering it more palatable. The following plan for procuring fresh water at sea, in a case of emergency, was pursued by a Captain Chapman, when sailing off the north coast of Finland. By accident he lost nearly all his water ; and while thus circumstanced, a gale of wind arose, which blew hard for three weeks, and drove him far out to sea. The captain was in great anxiety. The water in the ship would last but a short time, and he had no still on board. But necessity, the mother of invention, aided him in contriving one. By means of an old pitch- pot, with a wooden cover, and a pipe made of a pew- ter plate, and a cask for a receiver, he commenced operations. He put seven quarts of sea-water and an ounce of soap into the pot, and placed it on the fire. As soon as the pot boiled, the condensed vapor began XX.— 8 86 GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. to flow through the pipe into the receiver. In half an hour he obtained a quart of fresli water. This water, though not very palatable, answered for all necessary puposes. They kept their still constantly at work, and got a gallon of water every two hours ; and thus the crew were saved from great suffering, if not from actual death. Phosphorescence of the Sea. — Every one who has been at sea, and observed the action of the waters at night, must have occasionally, remarked certain luminous appearances m the waves. Accounts of the phosphorescence of the sea may be found in the nar- rative of almost every voyager. The following de- scription is given by Mr. Stewart, in his " Journal of a Residence in the Sandwich Islands " : — " The exhi- bitions of the day have been followed at night by a phosphoretic scene of unrivalled splendor and sublim- ity. We had often before observed luminous points, • lilce sparlcs of fire, floating here and there in the fur- row of our vessel, but now the whole ocean was literally bespangled with them. Notwithstanding the smoothness of the surface, there is a considerable swell of the sea ; and sparkling as it did on eveiy part as with fire, the mighty heavings of its bosom were inde- scribably magnificent. It seemed as if the sky had fallen to a level with the ship, and all its stars, in ten- fold numbers and brilliancy, were rolling about with the undulations of the billows. " The horizon in every direction presented a line of uninterrupted light, while the wide space intervening was one extent of apparent fire. The sides of our vessel appeared kindling to a blaze, and, as our bows GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 87 occasionally dashed against, a wave, the flash of the concussion gleamed half way up the rigging, and illu- minated every object along the whole length of the ship. By throwing any article overboard, a display of light and colors took place surpassing in brilliancy and beauty the finest exhibition of fire-works. A charming effect was produced by a line coiled to some length, and then cast into the w^ater at a distance, and also by a bucket of water dashed from the side of a vessel. The rudder, too, by its motions, created splendid corus- cations at the stern, and a flood of light, by which our track was marked far behind us. The smaller fish were distinctly traceable by running lines showing their rapid course, while now and then broad gloam- ings, extending many yards in every direction, made known the movements of some monster of the deep. But minuteness will only weary, without conveying any adequate impression of the scene ; it would have been wise, perhaps, only to have said that it was among the most sublime nature herself ever presents. " The cause of this phenomenon was long a subject of speculation among men of science, but is now satisfac- torily ascertained to be sea-animalculee of the luminous tribe, particularly the species Medusa. The Medusa pelucens oUS'iT Joseph Banks, and the Medusa scintil- Iqiis of JNIr. Macartney, emit the most splendid light. The degree and brilliancy of the exhibition are supposed to depend on the state of the atmosphere and sea. A more grand display than that which we have witnessed probably seldom, if ever, takes place." This phenomenon has been ascribed to various caus- es, but the explanation presented by Mr Stewart is the 88 GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. one now most generally admitted. The little animal by which this light is produced is sometimes called the glow-worm of the sea. It is exceedingly small, thin, and transparent, and, like the fire-fly, with which we are all acquainted, emits a brilliant light. The sea contains many animals of this nature, of differ- ent species. The Medusas have little antennae or horns, from which they dart a strong light, while the rest of their body remains in obscurity. All the zoophytes appear to be in a greater or less degree phosphorescent. Some accurate observers have also thought, that in addition to this glow-worm light, there is a luminous appearance originating from the decomposition of veg- etable and animal substances, similar to the phospho- rescence of rotten wood. The Color of the Ocean. — The water of the sea is colorless when examined in small quantities, but when viewed in the mass in the wide ocean, it ap- pears to be of an azure or blue tint. The cause of this generally, blue color of the deep sea has not been as yet clearly explained ; but it seems to be in some degree accounted for by reference to certain principles connected with the science of optics. Probably most are aware that light consists of the set of coloi's which we see so beautifully displayed in the rainbow. Now, it is a law of light, that, when it enters any body, and is either reflected or transmitted to the eye, a certain portion of it, consisting of more or less of its colors, is lost in the body. The remainder, being reflected, strikes our visual sense, and, whatever color that may be, the object seems of that color. Now, it chances that the portion of light most apt to be reflected from masses GEOGRArmCAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 89 of transparent fluid is the blue ; and hence it is, or sup- posed to be, that the air and sea both appear of this color. While there can be no doubt that the ocean is gen- erally of a blue color, it is equally certain that there are many portions of sea in which a different hue ap- pears. The causes of these exceptions from the rule seem to be of various kinds. Frequently, the ordinaiy color of the sea is affected by the admixture of foreign substances, these being sometimes of a living and or- ganic nature, and sometimes the reverse. The most simple example of the latter class of cases is the com- mon flooding of any stream, when quantities of mud and earthy particles are introduced into the river, and emptied into the sea. What is thus strikingly seen on cveiy coast, on a small scale, will readily be conceived to be of infinitely wider extent in the mighty rivers of the principal continents of the globe. Thus is it with the great streams of South America, where the Plata forms a sloping bank which extends a hundred miles into the Atlantic, and still more conspicu- ously in the mighty Amazon, with a course of 3,000 miles and a breadth at the mouth of 150 miles. Its im- mense body of water often rushes with a dreadful im- petus and velocity into the ocean, freshening its waters to the distance of 250 miles from shore. Hence, then, in such circumstances, the mariner, when still far from land, is not surprised when he ploughs an ocean quite of a brownish hue. It is from the same cause that the well known Yelloio Sea acquires its appearance and appropriate name. Mr. Barrow estimates the quantity of yellow-colored mud 8* 90 GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EAETH. which is transmitted by the Hoang-ho or Yellow River, whose course is 2,000 miles, at 2,000,000 of solid feet an hour, or 48,000,000 a day, or 17,580,000,000 a year. " Supposing," he adds, " the mean depth of the Yellow Sea to be 120 feet, the quantity of earth brought down would, if accumulated together, be sufficient to fill up to the surface of the sea an island of the extent of a mile square every seventy days." The testimony of Captain Basil Hall is quite satisfactoiy as to the result of all this. " The water of the Yellow Sea, over which we were sailing, was contaminated by the intermixture of mud slightly yellow in its color. We sailed on directly across this sea for two whole days without seeing land, and gradually diminishing the depth of water, till at last we began to have some apprehension that we should fairly stick in the mud. It was soon afterwards discovered that the brig was actually sailing along with her keel in the mud, which was sufficiently indicated by a long yellow train in our wake. Some inconvenience was caused by this extreme shallowness, but there was not in reality much danger, as it was as- certained, by forcing long poles into tlie ground, that for many fathoms under the surface on which the sounding-lead rested, the bottom consisted of nothing but mud formed of an impalpable powder, without the least particle of sand or gravel." Still more striking results arise from living vege- tables and animals. The influence of vegetables in coloring large masses of water may be illustrated by a reference to the Lake of Geneva and the Red Sea. The waters of the Lake usually are of a fixed pale blue color, the delicate beauty of which arrests GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 91 the admiration of every traveller. But while such is the proi)cr color of these waters, occasionally, though rarely, they are as decidedly of a green hue ; and we have it upon the authority of Sir Humphrey Davy, that on these occasions the change of color is produced by the ^\•ater being impregnated with vegetable substances. And respecting the Red Sea, let us hear the testimony of the eminent naturalist Ehrenberg. "I was for many months at Tor, on the Red Sea, near Mount Sinai. I there observed the striking phenomenon of the whole bay being of a bloody color ; the main sea, beyond the coral reef, was as usual colorless. The short waves of the calm sea carried to the shore a blood-colored shining mass, which it deposited on the sands, so that the whole bay, fully half a league in length, at the ebb of the tide, exhibited a blood-red border more than a foot wide. This appearance was not permanent, but periodical. It attracted my atten- tion as explanatory of the name of the Red Sea, a name hitherto of difficult explanation. Upon examination, this color was found to be produced by one of the algfe, a marine vegetable.'" The extraordinary part which animals play in color- ing the ocean, may be demonstrated by alluding to the vast tracts of the Northern Sea, which among mariners are familiarly known as green loater, and which do not, under any circumstances, assume a blue tint. Mr. Scoresby thus describes them : — " After a long run through waters of the common blue color, the sea became green and less transparent. The color was nearly grass-green, with a shade of black. Sometimes the transition between the green and blue water is pro- 92 GEOGRzVPIIICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. gressive, passing tlirough the intermediate shades in the space of ten or twelve miles ; at others, it is so sudden that the line of separation is seen like the ripple of a current, and the two qualities of water keep apj)arcntly as distinct as the waters of a large muddy river on first entering the sea. In 1817, I fell in with such narrow stripes of various-colored water, that we passed streams of pale green, olive-green, and transparent blue, in the course of ten minutes sailing." These green regions extend for tens of thousands of miles, and it has been distinctly proved' that the peculiar color is produced by in- conceivable multitudes of microscopic animals, principal- ly minute sea-blubber, medusa^ and infusoria:. Some of these animals are green, and directly produce the color which is exhibited, but many more are yellow, which color, combining with the blue of the sea- water, will also, as every one knows, produce a green tint. Other appearances, proceeding from a similar cause, and, if possible, still more striking, are also witnessed. Thus, a red color, sometimes characterized as blood or carmine red, frequently astonishes the voyager. The water of the Gulf of California in the Northern Pacific is reddish, whence it is sometimes named the Vermil- ion Sea. Captain Colnet, in the interesting account of his voyage, states, " That the set of the currents on the coast of Chili may at all times be discover- 3d by noticing the direction of the beds of small blubber with which the coast abounds, and from which the water derives a color like that of blood. I have often been engaged," he adds, " for a whole day in passing through various sets of them." The celebrated naturalist, D'Orbigny, makes similar GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 93 remarks concerning the waters of the Atlantic. " There are immense tracts," says he, "off the '.oast of Brazil, filled with small animals so numerous as to impart a red color to the sea ; large portions are thus highly colored, and receive from the sailors the name of the Brazil Bank. This bank extends over a great part of the coast of that country, keeping at nearly the same dis- tance from the shore. Another bank of the same sort occurs near Cape Horn, in Lat. 57° S." Captain Cook, in his third voyage, encountered the same appearances, and states, " That on examination the phenomenon was found to proceed from an infinity of little animals, which, when viewed by the microscope, had the shape of cray-fish of a red color." Hence we are not to wonder, that, according to an intelligent mar- iner, " The southern seas sometimes presented an ap- pearance which terrified their early navigators, who, seeing large spaces of the sea of a blood-red color, con- ceived it a portent of some dreadful catastrophe." These singular appearances are not, however, confined to southern regions. At all events, Mr. Scoresby narrates, that he noticed in his last voyage, in 1823, some insulated patches of reddish-brown water, which were found to be occasioned by animalculse ; and often, too, were the icebergs and snows tipped with an orange- yellow stain. " The animal," he adds, " which gives this peculiar color to the sea, is about the size of a pin's head, transparent, and marked with twelve distinct patches of a brownish color." The same appearances have not unfrcquently been noticed in fresh water ; and, under the name of blood-rain, have sometimes caused no small alarm over wide districts. 94 GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. We cannot attempt to account for all these appear- ances, but may remark that M. Ehrenberg, in the step- pes of Siberia, examined some of these waters. " In a fen," he remarks, " with a pool of water, the dark red blood-color was vei-y striking, even at a distance. This color I found on examination was confined to the slimy surface, which in different places formed a shining skin. The red color was darkest up the edge of the marsh. I\I. Chantran, in the year 1797, examined in France a pond which exhibited the same appearances, the water being of a brilliant red color, with a shade between cin- nabar and carmine ; as did Weber in Germany, near Halle, in 1790. In all these latter instances, the color was produced by infusory animals. Milk-white is another color which is not unfrequently mentioned. Thus Captain Tuckey states, that, near Cape Palmas, upon the coast of Guinea, his vessel appeared to move in milk, which circumstance arose from the multitude of animals upon the surface, which obscured the natural color of the liquid. And, once more, the existence of a yellow-colored sea from the same cause is satisfactorily established, " In approaching the south point of Amer- ica," says Captain Colnet, " we this forenoon passed several fields of spawn, which caused the water to bear the appearance of barley, covering the surface of a bank." These causes of varied color in the ocean, however striking in themselves, are not likely to mislead any one as to the inherent color of its waters. It is difierent, however, with the class of causes to which we now pro- ceed, and which we may arrange under the head of the reflection of colored rays from the bed or bottom of GEOGRAPHICAL, VIEW OF THE EARTH. 95 the sea. Sometimes, indeed, lliough rarely, these ap- pearances arc quite as singular as any we have hitherto considered. Tlius, m the Bay of Loango, the waters arc" almost always of a deep red color ; so much so, that they are said to be mixed with blood, and Captain Tuckey satisfied himself that the bottom is intensely red. Let us substitute for this bright red bottom one of the same shade, but obscure and slightly reflectmg, and the water of the Bay of Loango would then appear of an orange-yellow color. Far more frequently, how- ever, the bed of the sea is of a yellow rather than a red hue ; and if this color is at all bright and strong, the slight blue of the pure water will scarcely afiect it, and then the waters will appear yellow, — a tint which, let it be observed, is in fact by no means uncommon on many sea-shores. But bright yellow is by no means so com- mon a tint of sea-sand as is dull or obscure yellow ; and this, owing both to its own proper color, and also to its being obscured by a great mass of superimposed water, Wlien the yellow hue is thus reduced, the feeble ray reflected from the bottom, mixing with the pale blue of the ocean, produces, as is universally known, a green tint, which is communicated to the water ; and this is one of the most widely spread modifying causes of change in the proper color of the sea. But the most difficult part of the problem still re- mains ; and that is, to account for the green color of the ocean in those places where it is hundreds and thousands of fathoms deep, and where, of course, every thing like reflection from the bottom is quite out of the question. M. Arago, to account for the . phenomena occuriiig under such circumstances, offers a theory 96 GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. which resolves itself into the principle, that when the surface is troubled, the luminous rays, coming from the waves to the eye, consist more, of transmitted rays than of reflected rays, and therefore are green. According to this view, the appearances exhibit themselves only during a breeze which disturbs the surface, and in the midst of a swell, so common over the ocean. The ob- server stands upon the deck of the vessel, the billows often overtopping the level of the ship ; the luminous rays which reach the eye from the sea must have pas- sed from the distant horizon through one or more of the watery ridges ; thus the transmitted rays have predom- inated over the reflected ones, and so, according to the allowed fact, must be green. Winds. — A change in the temperature, a diminu- tion of the vapor, or any other cause that may oc- casion a portion of the surrounding atmosphere to contract or expand, will give rise to the aerial cur- rents denominated, winds, which, indeed, bear a strong analogy to the currents which occur in the ocean. When the air by which we are surrounded becomes heated, it expands, and becomes specifically lighter, in consequence of which it mounts upward ; and the colder and denser air which surrounds the mass thus rarefied rushes in to supply its place. When the door of a heated apartment is thrown open, a current of air is thereby immediately produced ; the warm air from the apartment passing out, and the cold air from the passage rushing in. So, also, in those build- ings where the manufacture of glass is carried on, the heat of the furnace in the centre being intense, a violent current of air may be observed to force its way GEOGEAPHICv^L VIEW OF THE EARTH. 97 m Ihrough the doors or crevices on the opposite side^ of the house. On iipplying these principles to account for the ori- gin of the wind, we find, that when the rays from the sun, by their reflection from the earth's surface, have heated or rarefied a portion of the surrounding air, the air so rarefied ascends into the higher regions of the atmosphere, and the colder air by which it was sur- rounded moves forward in a sensible current to fill the vacuity. When, also, a condensation of vapor in the atmosphere suddenly takes place, giving rise to clouds which speedily dissolve in rain, the temperature of the surrounding air is sensibly altered, and the cold- er, rushing in upon the warmer, gives rise to a sudden gust of wind. For this reason, a cold, heavy shower passing over head, with a hasty foil of snow or hail, is often attended with a violent and sudden gust of wind, which ceases when the cloud disappears, but is renewed when another cloud, sweeping along in the same direction, brings with it a fresh blast. Accord- ingly, a whistling, or howling, or noise of the wind, is universally considered to be a prognostic of rain, because it indicates that a change is taking place in the temperature of the atmosphere, owing to the va- ])or in its higher regions being condensed into rain- clouds. The most remarkable winds are those which tra- verse the ocean steadily in one direction, and are called tradc-ioinds from their use in mercantile nav- igation. In order that we may distinctly under- stand the cause and nature of the trade-winds, it is necessary to bear in mind that the earth in the centre 7 XX.— 9 98 GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. of its circumference, at an equal distance from the poles, is divided by a line called the equator into two hemispheres, the Northern and the Southern. By sea- men this equator is called the line ; and when they sail over it, they are said to cross the line. Across the equator, cutting it obliquely, there passes another great circle called the ecliptic, which describes the path the sun traverses. It extends 23^° north and 23^° south of the equator, which is the utmost limit the sun traverses ; for when arrived at either of these boundaries, he again seems to return towards the equa- tor. It must be vciy evident that the region of the earth included within a circle di-awn 23|° north and 23-1 " south of the equator, — which will comprehend the greatest portion of Africa, a considerable part of Asia and America, and many large, fertile, and popu- lous islands in the East and West Indies, — will receive constantly the solar rays in a direction so little oblique, that the most intolerable heat might there be antici- pated. It was therefore called the torrid zone ; and the limits at which the sun stops, and appears to re- trace his course, have received the name of tropics, or circles of return. This being premised, and it being also remembered that the earth revolves daily round the sun from west to east, the cause of the trade-winds will be readily un- derstood. The rays of the sun, in its apparent motion from east to west, obviously rarefy, by the heat they impart, the air beneath, and the air so rarefied rises into the higher regions of the atmosphere. While this takes place, the colder air from the adjoining temperate zones rushes in to supply its place. But it is from the GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 99 polar regions, north and south, that these colder cur- rents originally come; and did the earth remain at rest, such would be their obvious direction. Inste^ii of this, however, north of the equator the direction of the trade-winds is from the northeast; south of the equator, from the southeast; the cause of which is thus explained. The velocity with which the earth revolves is inconsiderable, if at all appreciable, at the poles, but increases as we advance, and is at its maximum at the equator; the winds, in sweeping from the poles, do not acquire a corresponding velocity with the motion of the earth as they advance towards the equator ; therefore, moving more slowly than the earth, they are left behind, striking bodies with the ex- cess of the earth's velocity ; so that, to the observer who imagines himself at rest, the air appears to move in a direction contraiy to the rotation of the earth, namely, from east to west. While the trade-wind thus blows upon the surface of the earth, there is no doubt that an opposite current, probably that of the rarefied air which has ascended, flows in the contrary direction at a great elevation in the atmosphere. The external limits of the trade-winds are 30^ north and 30° south of the equator; but each limit diminish- es as the sun advances to the opposite tropic. The larger the expanse of ocean over which they sweep, the more steadily do they blow ; accordingly, they are more steady in the Pacific than in the Atlantic, and in the South than in the North Atlantic Ocean. With- in the region of the constant trade-winds, rain seldom occurs, but it falls abundantly in the adjoining lati- tudes. The reason is, that rain is produced by the sud- 100 GEOGRArHICAL VIEW OF THE EAKTH. den mixture of air of different temperatures charged with moisture ; but the constant circulation and inter- mixture of the air from the upper strata of the atmos- phere, or ground current, maintains so equal a tem- perature in these latitudes as not to occasion the con- densation of vapor which is necessary for the produc- tion of rain. Besides which, it is plausibly enough alleged by Daniel, that the aqueous vapor constantly flows off in the current of the equatorial wind into the adjoining temperate zones. Within the limits of the trade-winds, contrary to what might have been antici- pated from the latitude, the atmosphere is peculiarly cool and refreshing. Sea and Land Breezes. — In most countries near the shores of the sea, but particularly in tropical cli- mates, there are periodical winds called sea and land breezes ; they occur in the following manner. Dur- ing the day, the wind blows for a certain number of hours from the sea to the land ; but when the evening arrives, it changes hs direction, and blows as many hours from the land to the sea. In some countries the sea-breeze sets in about seven or eight in the morn- ing, and is strongest at noon, but continues very sensi- ble until three o'clock, when the surface of the sea will be observed to exhibit ripples of a deep blue color. After this, at six in the evening, the land breeze commences. The sea now assumes a greenish hue ; and this breeze continues until eight the next morning. The cause of this alternation may be readily ex[)lained. During the day, the air over the surface of the earth is more heated by the rays of the sun than that over the surface of the sea; because the earth, GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 101 from its greater density, comparative state of rest, and numerous elevations, reflects the sun's rays sooner, and with more power, than they are reflected from the sea, \\hich, from its state of constant motion and trans- parency, imbibes the warmth very intimately, though more slowly. Accordingly, wlien the sun, having risen above the horizon, has, by the reflection of its rays, thus impart- ed a sufficient degree of warmth to rarefy the body of air over the land, the air so rarefied ascends into the higher regions of the atmosphere, while that over the surface of the sea, being scarcely at all rarefied, rushes in to supply its place. Hence, a sea-breeze, or cur- rent of air from the sea to the land, at this time pre- vails ; but when the sun again begins to sink below the horizon, the body of air over the surface of the land becomes rapidly cold, and the earth itself, by radiation, parts very quickly with the warmth it had absorbed. Then the land air, being below the temperature of the sea air, rushes in to supply its place, and thus during the night, a land-breeze, or a current of air from the land to the sea, is produced. When the sea-breeze first sets in, it commences very near the shore, and gradually extends itself farther out at sea, and, as the day advances, becomes more or less hot. Hence, the sails of ships have been obsei-ved quite becalmed six or eight miles out at sea, while at the same time a fresh sea-breeze has been blowing upon the shore. The cause of this is obvious ; for it is natural to suppose that the mass of air nearest the land will be the first to rush in, for the purpose of supplying the place of the air which is rarefied immediately above it. 9* 102 GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. On this account, the cfTect of the sea-breeze is said not to be perceptible at a distance of more tlian five or six leagues from the shore, and for the most part be- comes fainter in proportion to its distance from land. The distance, on tlie other hand, to which the land- breeze extends in blowing across the sea depends on the more or less exposed aspect of the coast from which it proceeds. In some places this breeze was found by Dampier brisk three or four leagues off shore ; in other places not so many miles; in others, again, it scarcely extended without the rocks. The sea-breeze, from blowing over a more open tract, is always strong- er than the land-breeze ; but it is observed that the land-breeze is much colder than the sea-breeze. Fur- thermore, it has been noticed that the tendency of the land-breeze at night has almost invariably a corre- spondence with the sea-breeze of the preceding or fol- lowing day. " Should the land-wind from being east, draw, in the course of the night, towards the north, it would be looked upon," says jMarsdcn, in his " History of Sumatra," " as an infallible prognostic of a west and northwest wind the next day ; and on this principle it is that the natives foretell the direction of the wind, by the noise of the surf at night, which, if heard from the northward, is esteemed the forerunner of a norther- ly wind, and vice versa. " The quarter from which the noise is heard depends on the course of the land-wind, which brings the sound with it, and drowns it to leeward ; the land-wind has a correspondence with the next day's sea-wind, and thus the divination is accounted for." Unless for the periodical refreshing, cool breezes from the sea, GEOGKAPIIICAL VIEW OF THE EAETII. 103 the West India Islands, and generally all hot countries, would scarcely be habitable for the white races of men. Hurricanes. — The most dangerous winds to the navigator are those which occur in sudden gusts, or squalls, and for the approach of which the sharpest outlook is required. When the squall ia in the form of a violent tempest, accompanied by rain, lightning, and thunder, it receives the name of a hurricane. Hurricanes occur most frequently and with the greatest violence in tropical climates, because, in consequence of the very great heat which there prevails, the rare- faction of the air, and also the condensation of the va- por it contains into rain-drops, takes place more sud- denly and completely than in more temperate regions. By this means the electricity of the atmosphere, — that subtle fluid which seems to pervade all bodies, and which universally seeks its own equilibrium, — is disturbed, and no longer maintains an equal distribution through the aerial vapor. It accumulates in vast quan- tities in one mass of vapor or cloud, while in another it is deficient ; and, consequently, to regain its equi- librirjn, it flashes in the form of lightning from the sur- charged cloud to the cloud that is undercharged, or to the earth itself. Hence, hurricanes are always attend- ed with electrical manifestations, which add greatly to the tragical horrors of the spectacle they exhibit. In describing the tremendous hurricane which took place in the West Indies in 1772, a writer observes ; — " I must still mention how dreadful every thing looked in this horrible and dai'k night, there being so many fiery meteors in the air, which I and others who were in the same situation were spectators of. Towards 104 GEOGUAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. the east, the face of the heavens presented to oin view a number of fiery rods, — electrical brushes, — which were through the whole night shooting and darting in all directions ; likewise fiery balls, which flew up and down, here and there, and burst into a number of small pieces, which, like torches of flaming straw, came very near the road where we lay ; yet, notwithstand- ing all these phenomena, thunder and lightning were abundantly great." Hurricanes commence in various ways : sometimes from a single and small cloud, which suddenly ex- pands, overspreading, as with a dense shroud, the whole heavens ; and sometimes from a slowly gather- ing mass of clouds which appear to be irradiated with electric fire. When the enterprising navigator, Colum- bus, was about to depart from Isabella Island, while his vessels were still in the harbour, one of these dread- ful hurricanes arose. " About mid-day," says Wash- ington Irving, " a furious wind sprang up from the east, driving before it dense volumes of cloud and vapor. Encountering another tempest from the west, it ap- peared as if a violent conflict ensued. The clouds were rent by incessant flashes, or rather streams, of lightning. At one time they were piled up high in the sky, at another they descended to. the earth, filling_the air with a baleful darkness more im{)enetrable than the obscurity of midnight. Wherever the hurricane passed, whole tracts of forests were shivered and stripped of their leaves and branches, and those of gigantic size, which resisted the blast, were torn up by the roots, and hurled to a great distance. Groves were torn from the mountain precipices, and vast GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 105 masses of earth and rock precipitated into the valleys with terrific noise, choking the course of the rivers. The fearful sounds in the air and on the earth, — the pealing thunder, — the vivid lightning, — the howling of the wind, — the crash of falling trees and rocks, — filled every one with affright, and many thought that the end of the world was at hand. Some fled to cav- erns for safety, for their frail houses were blown down, and the air was filled with the trunks and branches of trees, and even with fragments of rocks, carried along by the fury of the tempest. When the hurricane reached the harbour, it whirled the ships round as they lay at anchor, snapped their cables, and sunk three of them to the bottom, with all who were on board. Others were driven about, dashed against each other, and tossed, mere wrecks, upon the shore by the swelling surges of the sea, which in some places rolled for three or four miles upon the land. Tlic tempest lasted for three hours. When it had passed away, and the sun again appeared, the Indians regarded each other with mute dismay. Never, in their memory, nor in their tra- ditions, had their island been visited by such a tremeh- dous storm. They believed that the Deity had sent this fearful ruin to punish the cruelties and crimes of the white men, and declared that this people had moved the very air, the water, and the earth, to disturb their tranquil life, and to desolate their island." The West Indies, the Isle of France, and the em- pires of Siam and China, are the countries which are most subjected to the ravages of hurricanes. In the West Indies they most frequently occur in the month of August, and the Indians, from their experience, origi- 106 GEOGRArHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. nally taught our planters the signs by which their approach may be prognosticated. The hurricane oc- curs either in the first quarter or at the full change of the moon. If it come on at the full, then at the pre- ceding change the sky looks troubled, and the sun more red than usual ; besides which, there is a dead calm below, and the mountain tops are free from those mists which usually overhang them. In the caverns of the earth, and in wells, a hollow, rumbling noise, like a rushing wind, is heard, and animals are observed to tremble and be much disturbed. Many animals, indeed,, appear to be very sensible of any change in the electri- cal state of the atmosphere, and indicate their uneasi- ness by moaning and great restlessness. At night the stars seem larger than usual, and are frequently sur- rounded with halos. It is said, also, that the sea emits a strong smell, and rises into vast waves, without any wind being perceived. W'hen the wind rises, it shifts from its common easterly direction to the west, whence, with occasional intermissions, it blows irregu- larly and violently. The moon, likewise, is frequently surrounded by a halo, and many luminous meteors ap- pear in the heavens. Notwithstanding that by observa- tion v/e may thus predicate the approach of hurricanes, it does not appear that we are at present able to avert them by any contrivance of art. The careful and skil- ful mariner, as his only safeguard, trusts to the trim- ming of his vessel to meet the expected tempest. Calms and Breezes. — " After a storm comes a calm," is an old proverb. The fury of the tempest ex- pends itself, and in all likelihood there shortly after en- sues a state of tranquillity, though several days may GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EAKTH. 107 elapse before the " swell," or heaving agitation of the sea, subsides. When both tlie atmosphere and the waters are tranquil, the surface of the ocean is beauti- fully calm, and almost as smooth as the glassy surface of a lake. But a perfect or dead calm, if of any con- tinuance, is almost as disagreeable to ih'i navigator as a driving tempest. The ship makes no progress in its course ; its sails are useless ; and there are no means of removing fi'om the dull and distressing scene. This condition of things is well described by the poet. " Down dropped the breeze, the sails dropped down, 'T was sad as sad could be, And wc did speak only to break The silence of the sea! " All in a hot and copper sky, Tlie bloody sun at noon, Right up above the mast did stand No bigger than the moon. " Day after day, day after day, We stuck, nor brcatli nor motion ; As idle as a paint<'d sliip Upon a painted ocean. " Water, water everywhere, And all the boards did shrink ; Water, water everywlicrc, But not a drop to drink." Fortunately, dead calms are not generally of that continuance which leads to any serious result. A gen- tle breeze begins to steal upon the face of the deep, and the hitherto unruffled surface of the waters shows a slight, tremulous ruffling, technically called the crony's foot. Sailors have a superstitious belief, that whistling 108 GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. in a calm will bring up a breeze, and this they do with a drawling and beseeching intonation on some promi- nent part of the vessel. Captain Hall gives a de- scription of the rise of a breeze, in connection with these whistling efforts of the sailors, on board a ship. " In the course of the afternoon, we perceived from the mast-head, far astern, a dark line along the horizon, which some of our most experienced hands pronounced the first trace of a breeze coming up. In the course of half an hour, this line had widened so much that it could easily be perceived from the deck. Upon seeing this, the whistlers redoubled their efforts ; and whether, as they pretended, it was owing to their interest with the clerk of the weather-ofhce, or whether the wind, if left alone, would have come just as soon, I do not venture to pronounce ; but certain it is, that, long be- fore sunset, our hearts were rejoiced by the sight of those numerous flying patches of wind, scattered over the calm surface of the sea, and called by seamen cat.''s- paws, — I presume from the stealthy, timorous man- ner in which they seem to touch the water, and straight- way vanish again. By and by, the true wind, the ripple from which had marked the horizon astern of us, and broken the face of the mirror shining brightly every- where else, indicated its approach, by fanning out the sky-sails and other flying kites, generally supposed to be superfluous, but which upon such occasions as this ■ do good sendee, by catching the first breath of air, that seems always to float above the water. One by one the sails were filled ; and, as the ship gathered way, every person marked the glistening eye of the helmsman, when he felt the spokes of the wheel pressing against GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. lOS his hand, by the action of the water upon the rud- der." The Polar Seas. — The seas within the Arctic and Antarctic circles exhibit appearances so very remark- able, in consequence of the intense cold which there prevails, that they deserve a particulai description. The following vivid sketch of scenes observed within the Arctic seas will be read with interest : — "After the continued action of the sun has at last melted away the great body of ice, a short and dubious interval of warmth occurs. In the space of a few weeks, only visited by slanting and enfeebled rays, frost again resumes his tremendous sway. It begins to snow in August, and the snow falls to the depth of two or three feet before October. Along the shores and bays, the fresh water, poured from rivulets or drained from the thawing of former collections of snow, becomes quickly converted into solid ice. As the cold augments, the air deposits its moisture, in the form of a fog, which freezes mto a fine, gossamer netting, or slender icicles, dis- persed through the atmosphere, and so extremely minute, that they seem to pierce and excoriate the skin. The hoar-frost settles profusely, in fantastic clusters, on every prominence. The whole surface of the sea steams like a lime-kiln, — an appearance called \he frost- smoke, caused, as in other instances of the production of vapors, by the waters being still relatively warmer than the incumbent air. At length the dispersion of the mist, and the conse- quent clearness of the atmosphere, announce that the upper stratum of the sea itself has become cooled to the same standard ; a sheet of ice spreads quickly over XX.— 10 110 GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. the smooth expanse, and often gains the thickness of an inch in a single night. The darkness of a prolong- ed winter now broods inpenetrably over the frozen con- tinent, unless the moon chance at times to obtrude her faint rays, which only discover the horrors and wide des- olation of the scene." The wretched settlers, covered with a load of bear-skins, remain crowded and immured in their huts, every chink of which they carefully stop against the piercing external cold, and, cowering about the stove or the lamp, they seek to doze away the tedi- ous night. Their slender stock of provisions, though kept in the same apartment, is often frozen so hard as to require to be cut with a hatchet. The whole of the inside of their hut becomes lined with a thick crust of ice ; and if they happen for an instant to open a win- dow, the moisture of the confined air is immediately precipitated in the form of a sliower of snow. As the frost continues to penetrate deeper, the rocks are heard at a distance to split with loud explosions. The sleep of death seems to wrap up the scene in utter and obliv- ious ruin. At length the sun reappears above the horizon ; but his languid beams rather betray the wide waste than brighten the prospect. By degrees, however, the fur- ther progress of the frost is checked. In the month of May, the famished inmates venture to leave their huts, in quest of fish on the margin of the sea. As the sun acquires elevation, his power is greatly increased. The snow gradually wastes away, the ice dissolves apace, and vast fragments of it detached from the cliffs and undermined beneath, precipitate themselves on the shores with the noise and crash of thunder. The ocean GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. Ill is now unbound, and its icy dome broken up with tremendous rupture. The enormous fields of ice thus set afloat are, by the violence of winds and currents, again dissevered and dispersed. Sometimes impelled in opposite directions, they approach, and strike with a mutual shock, like the crash of worlds, — sufficient, if opposed, to i-educe to atoms, in a moment, the proudest monuments of human power. It is impossible to picture a situation more awful than that of the poor crew of a whaler, who see their frail bark thus fatally inclosed, expecting immediate and total destruction. Before the end of June, the shoals of ice in the Arctic seas are commonly divided, scattered, and dissipated. But the atmosphere is then almost continually damp, and loaded with vapor. At this season of the year, a dense fog generally covers the surface of the sea, of a milder temperature, indeed, than the frost-smoke, yet produced by the inversion of the same cause. The lower stra- tum of air, as it successively touches the colder body of water, becomes chilled, and thence disposed to deposit its moisture. Such thick fogs, with mere gleams of clear weather, infesting the northern seas during the greater part of the summer, render their navigation ex- tremely dangerous. In the course of the month of July, the superficial water is at last brought to an equi- librium of temperature with the air, and the sun now shines out with a bright and dazzling radiance. There is no region of our globe more full of appalling scenes and exciting dangers. The descriptions given by those who have ventured among the bleak tempests of these northern seas almost cause the blood to chill in our veuis. Many a ship has been surrounded by 112 GEOGBAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. vast islands of ice, and the wretched seamen have there found their graves. Who can read without agitation the following graphic sketch : — " The fields of ice are frequently of immense extent. Cook found a chain of them which joined Eastern Asia to North America. The appearance of these con- tinents and islands of ice surpasses all that imagination can conceive. Here we fancy that we behold moun- tains of pure crystal, and valleys sown with diamonds. There grayish towers, with their resplendent points, seem to rise above a rampart crowned with ice. The mag- nifying medium of a hazy atmosphere renders this spectacle still more gigantic. He must have a heart of iron who dare penetrate into these inhospitable seas ; for if the navigator has not to fear tempests, which are extremely rare in these latitudes, nor water- spouts and hurricanes, which are there unlvnown, he will be assailed by other dangers much more capable of appalling the most intrepid minds. Sometimes hugt bodies of ice, impelled along by the winds and the cur- rents of the sea, dash against the frail vessel ; and there is no rock so dangerous or so difficult to avoid. Some- times these floating mountains treacherously surround the navigator, and block up every outlet ; his ship is arrested in her course, and becomes immovable. In vain does the feeble axe endeavour to break these enor- mous masses, in vain do the sails invite the winds ; the ship, as it were soldered into the ice, and the mar- mer, cut off from the world of living beings, remain fixed in a solitude of death. How frightful is the situa- tion of those who, thus hemmed in by the ice, have no other resource left than to quit their ves'^^l and walk GEOGKAPIIICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 113 over that consolidated crust of sea, which is eveiy moment cracking and ready to sink under their feet ! When ahnost dead with cold and hunger, they consider themselves fortunate should the floating piece of ice on which they sail cast them upon the shore of Siberia or Nova Zembla. But there is generally very little hope of life for the wretcned beings who suffer ship- wreck in these dreadful regions. Either the icy waves engulf them, or they are devoured by the tyrant of this dreadful empire, the white bear ; or, lastly, the intensi- ty of the cold extinguishes the vital heat, their feet ad- here to the ice, their blood no longer circulates in their veins, and the polar night becomes to them a night which is eternal." A terrific account has been given of a ship once found floating in this ocean surrounded with fields and mountains of ice, and every individual of the ship's company frozen. The intensity of the cold had pre- served every body from corruption. It seems that the ship had been caught in the ice, and detained in defi- ance of eveiy effort to liberate her. All their fuel was soon consumed. Their fire expired. Every soul was stiffened in death. One gentleman was found with his pen in his hand wi'iting to his absent wife. The oi'igin of the immense ice mountains which northern navigators so frequently meet, is difficult to be ascertained. The ice which obstructs the navigation of the Arctic seas is of two different kinds. One kind is formed by the congelation of salt water. It is fibrous and very porous, and not at all transparent. Some- times, as far as the eye can reach, a compact, unbroken field extends. Again, the whole ocean seems filled 8 10* 114 GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. with floating fragments, closely jammed together. A^^ain, those fragments are so separated that a ship may work its way along between them. And still again, these fragments, dashed together by the winds, are ground up to minuter fragments, called 7nash ice. But the ice mountains, or icebergs, as they are usual- ly called, are evidently of different origin ; they are formed by the congelation of fresh water, and not salt. From them, ships supply their casks with the purest and softest water. These mountains rise to an im- mense height, sometimes towering far above the masts of the largest ships. No explanation of the origin of these has appeared more satisfactory than the one we now quote from a writer in the Edinburgh Review. " In those inhospitable tracts, the snow which annu- ally falls upon the islands or continents, being again dissolved by the progress of the summer's heat, pours forth numerous rills and limpid streams, which collect along the indented shores, and in the deep bays inclos- ed by precipitous rocks. There this clear and gelid water soon freezes, and every successive year supplies an additional investing crust, till, after the lapse, per- haps, of several centuries, the icy mass rises at last to the size and aspect of a mountain, ccrmmcnsurate with the elevation of the adjoining cliffs. The melting of the snow, which is afterwards deposited on such enor- mous blocks, likewise contributes to their growth ; and, by filling up accidental holes or crevices, it renders the whole stuicture compact and uniform. Meanwhile, the Drinciple ol destruction has already begun its operations. The ceaseless agitation of the sea gradually wears and wideiTTjines the base of the icy mountain, till at length, GEOGKAPHICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 115 by the action of its own accumulated weight, when it has perhaps attained the altitude of one or two thousand feet, it is torn from its frozen chains, and precipitated with a tremendous plunge into the abyss below. The mighty launch now floats like a lofty island on the ocean ; till, driven southwards by the winds and cur- rents, it insensibly wastes and dissolves away in the Avidc Atlantic. " Such we conceive to be the real origin of the icy mountains or icebergs, entirely similar in their forma- tion to the glaciers which occur on the flanks of the Alps and Pyrenees. They consist of a clear, compact, and solid ice, which has the flne green tint verging to blue, which ice or water, when veiy pure, and of sufficient depth, always assumes. From the cavities of these icebergs, the crews of the northern whalers are accustomed, by means of a hose or flexible tube of canvass, to fill their casks easily with the purest and softest water. Of the same species of ice, the fragments wliich are picked up as they float on the surface of the ocean yield the adventurous navigator the most refresh- in