XÎ EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. 



be no lefs extraordinary. They are precifely thefe, if both 

 the one and the other exifted, there would be no Sea under 

 the Equator ; bccaufe the courfe of the waters would be in 

 this cafe determined, by the elevation of fix leagues and a 

 half, and by the more fudden curvature of thit part of the 

 Earth, to witiidraw from it, and, by the power of gravity, 

 to flow toward the flattened Poles, nearer to the centre, and 

 there to re-eftablifh the fpherical fegment which the Acade- 

 micians have cut off". Accordingly, on this hypothefis, the 

 Seas would cover the Poles, and would there be of a pro- 

 digious depth, whereas we fhould have nothing but elevatec^ 

 Continents under the Line. But Geography dcinonfl;rates 

 the direci contrary ; for it is around the Line that we find 

 the grcateft Seas, and a great quantity of Land barely up, 

 to their level ; and, on the contrary, elevated countries and^ 

 lofty beds of water are very frequent, efpecially toward the. 

 North Pole» 



Let us now proceed to confider the polar ices. Though 

 they are here reprefented, precifely in the fugitive, and leaft 

 vifible, parts of the Globe, it is eafy to form a judgment of 

 their very confiderable extent from the arch of the Meri- 

 dian which embraces them. At the South Pole, where 

 they are in a fmaller quantity, having jufl: undergone all 

 the ardor of the Summer of that Hemifphere, they itlU ex- 

 tend from that Pole to the 7otK degree of fouthern Latitude 

 at tlie lead. They there form, accordingly, a cupola, of an 

 arch of more than 40 degrees, which, at the rate of twenty- 

 five leagues, at Icaft, to a degree, for degrees at this part ot 

 the Globe, conformably to the experience of our Academi- 

 cians, are greater than toward the Equator, give a breadth 

 of more, than a thoufand and twenty leagues, or a circum- 

 fejencc of more tiian three thoufand. It is impofliblc to 



call 



