THE DISTRIBUTION OF LAND AND WATER ON THE 



EARTH. 



By harry fielding REID. 

 (Read April 22, ig2o.) 



The shapes of the various continents and seas, their relative 

 areas, and their dispositions with regard to each other, have always 

 been attractive problems for geographers ; and a number of charac- 

 teristics have been formulated, which have been repeated in various 

 text books of geography and geology, and have thus become familiar 

 to us all. They are: 



1. The earth can be divided into two hemispheres in such a way 

 that nearly all the land is concentrated in one hemisphere, and the 

 other is nearly all covered with water. 



2. The land is everywhere opposite the water. 



3. The land is concentrated around the arctic regions, and the 

 water around the antarctic regions. The land sends three projec- 

 tions towards the south, and the oceans three projections towards 

 the north. 



5. The continents are roughly triangular in shape, pointing 

 southward. The oceans are roughly triangular in shape, pointing 

 northwards. 



6. The continents are divided into a northern and a southern 

 group by mediterranean seas ; and the southern group is offset to- 

 wards the east. 



I imagine we have all pondered over these curious character- 

 istics ; and I must confess that the antipodal relation of land and 

 water has, until recently, been to me an absorbing though bafifling 

 mystery, with no threads leading to its solution. But the matter 

 turns out to be rather simple, after all. It can be shown that nearly 

 all the characteristics enumerated above are comprised in the fol- 

 lowing: The land area of the earth is a loosely connected, and 

 deeply dissected area, about five-sixths of zvhich is concentrated in 



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