246 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



fhall certainly enlift under the banner of this illuf- 

 trious Aftronomer, if we confider the teflimony of 

 the eye as of any weight ; for the fliade of the 

 Earth appears oval over it's Poles, in central 

 eclipfes of the Moon, as was obferved by Tycho 

 Brhaé and Kepler. Thefe names are a hoft in 

 themfelves. 



Bur without confidering any name as an autho- 

 rity, where natural truths are concerned, we may 

 conclude, from fimple analogies, the elongation of 

 the axis of the Earth. If we confider, as has been 

 already laid, the two Hemifpheres as two moun- 

 tains, whofe bafes are at the Equator, the fummits 

 at the Poles, and the Ocean, which alternately 

 flows from one of thefe fummits, as a great river 

 defcending from a mountain, we fliall have, under 

 this point of view, objeds of comparifon which 

 may alTift us in determining the point of elevation 

 from which the Ocean takes it's rife, by the dif- 

 tance of the place where it's courfe terminates. 

 Thus the fum.mit of Chinxboraco, the moft ele- 

 vated of the Andes of Peru, out of which the ri- 

 ver of the Amazons iffues, having a league and 

 one- third nearly of elevation, above the mouth of 

 that river, which is diftant from it, in a ftraight 

 line, about twenty-fix degrees, or fix hundred and 

 fifry leagues, it may be thence concluded, that the 

 fummit of the Pole muft be elevated above the 



circumfereticç 



