EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. lilfl 



Though thefe nautical obfervations aredecifive as to my- 

 felf, for they have been made by enlightened partifans of the 

 Aftronomical Syftem which they totally fubvert, while they 

 confirm the truth of my theory, I fhall, however, quote 

 two ftill more curious, more authentic, and more impartial 

 than all the others, becaufe they have not been picked up 

 by men bred to the Sea, and who, confequently, have nei- 

 ther the prejudices nor the fyftems of the profeffion. The 

 one has the inhabitants of a whole kingdom to vouch for 

 him ; and the other, one of the moft terrible epochas of the 

 naval Hiftory of Europe : and both of them wonderfully 

 confirm one of the moft agreeable harmonies of the vege- 

 table Hiftory of Nature, the elements of which I have pre- 

 fented in the emigration of plants. 



From the firft of thefe obfervations, we fhall demonftrate, 

 that the Atlantic Current comes, in fa6l, from the South, 

 and fets in northward, as Navigators believe, but this only 

 during our Winter. It is, accordingly, produced, in this 

 dire6lion, by the efFufions of the ices of the South Polei 

 which, in our Winter, flow toward the North ; and not by 

 the adlion of the Moon between the Tropics, according to 

 our Aftronomers, becaufe, at that very feafon, the Naviga- 

 tors of the Southern Hemifphere have found, beyond the 

 Tropics, this fame Current coming from the South, which 

 affuredly could not take place, if this Current were pro- 

 duced by the a6lion of the Moon on the Equator ; for, on 

 this hypothefis, it would flow in a contrary direction in the 

 Southern Hemifphere. But this is by no means the cafe, 

 as I am able to prove, by the Journals of Abel Tofman, of 

 Dampier, of Frafer, of Cook^ Sic. wlio found beyond the 

 Tropics, in the Southern Hemifphere, this Current fetting 

 in from the South, but only during our Winter. 



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