Chap. XIV. MISCELLANEOUS. 517 



appeared, indeed, to be himself somewhat in the 

 dark. Had he consulted his Arrowsmith, he would 

 have found that the isthmus of Darien has neither 

 east nor west sides — they are north and south. 

 Those isthmuses in the Red Sea and Mediterranean 

 are utterly unintelligible ; and those of Boothia 

 and Darien are calculated to put one in mind of the 

 rivers of Monmouth and Macedon. There is an 

 isthmus of Darien and an isthmus of Boothia, 

 " and there is thirteen feet water at both ;" the 

 thirteen feet appears very much to have been bor- 

 rowed from Mr. Lloyd's ' Darien.' The examiner 

 would seem not yet to have been satisfied with the 

 process of the theodolite and the hole in the ice ; 

 he should have inquired what was the result of the 

 hole ; did it, like one of the Geysers of Iceland, throw 

 up a jet of thirteen feet, not of hot, but salt water ? 

 Commander James Ross was asked — 



" Are you aware of the fact, that the two seas right and 

 left of the isthmus which connects Boothia with the continent 

 of America, are of different altitudes ? 



" No, I am not ; nor had we the means of ascertaining 

 the fact with accuracy ; it would take at least two or three 

 months to ascertain it with the accuracy such an observation 

 would require. 



" You have no reason to suppose such a thing ? 



" None whatever. No ; / never heard of it till this 

 moment. 



" Has Captain Ross never told you that he had ascertained 

 that to be the fact ? 



" Captain Ross may have made observations which have 



