202 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



" which was, at leaft, ten leagues round. It muft 

 " have been of a great height. Ships do cot 

 ** come near thefe ices, for there is danger left 

 ** they fliould overturn, according as they diifolve 

 *' on the fide expofed to the greateft heat.'* 



It is to be obferved, that the ices in queftion 

 are already more than half melted by the time they 

 reach the banks of Newfoundland ; for, in faft, 

 they fcarcely go any farther. It is the Summer's 

 heat which detaches them from the North, and 

 they are enabled to make even fuch a progrefs 

 fouthward, only by means of their floating down 

 the current, which carries them toward the Line, 

 ■where they arrive, in a ftate of diffolution, to re- 

 place the waters which the Sun is continually eva- 

 porating in the torrid Zone. 



Thefe polar ices, of which our mariners fee only 

 the borders and the crumbs, muft have, at their 

 centre an elevation proportioned to their extent. 

 For my own part, I confider the two Hemifpheres 

 of the Earth as two mountains with their bafes ap- 

 plied to each other at the Line, the Poles as the 

 icy fummits of thefe mountains, and the Seas as 

 rivers flowing from thefe fummits. 



'& 



If, then, we reprefent to ourfelves the propor- 

 tions which the glaciers of Switzerland have to 



their 



