OF THE GLOBE. 225 



Having thus endeavoured to establish a new law of the dis- 

 tribution of heat over the surface of the globe, it might be no 

 uninteresting inquiry to investigate the causes which have mo- 

 dified, in so remarkable a manner, the regular influence of the 

 solar rays. The subject, however, is too comprehensive, and 

 too hypothetical, to be discussed at present. How far the ge- 

 neral form and position of the continents and seas of the north- 

 ern hemisphere may disturb the natural parallelism of the iso- 

 thermal lines to the Equator. — To what extent the current 

 through Behring's Strait, transporting the waters of warmer 

 climates across the Polar seas, may produce a warm meridian 

 in the direction of its motion, and throw the coldest points of 

 the globe to a distance from the Pole. — Whether or not the 

 magnetic, or galvanic, or chemical poles of the globe, (as the 

 important discoveries of M. Oersted entitle us to call them), 

 may have their operations accompanied with the production of 

 cold, one of the most ordinary effects of chemical action. — Or 

 whether the great metallic mass which crosses the globe, and 

 on which its magnetic phenomena have been supposed to de- 

 pend, may not occasion a greater radiation of heat from those 

 points where it developes its magnetic influence ? — are a few 

 points, which we may attempt to discuss, when the progress 

 of science has accumulated a greater number of facts, and made 

 us better acquainted with the superficial condition, as well as 

 the internal organization, of the globe. 



VOL, IX. p. I. F f XIV. 



