296 COSMOS 



advantage. Africa* and South America, which manifest so 

 great a resemblance in their configuration, are also the two 

 continents that exhibit the simplest littoral outlines. It is 

 only the eastern shores of Asia, which, broken as it were by 

 the force of the currents of the oceanf (fractas ex cequore 

 terras} exhibit a richly variegated configuration, peninsulas 

 and contiguous islands alternating from the Equator to 60" 

 north latitude. 



Our Atlantic Ocean presents all the indications of a valley. 

 It is as if a flow of eddying waters had been directed first 

 towards the north-east, then towards the north-west, and back 

 again to the north-east. The parallelism of the coasts north 

 of 10 south latitude, the projecting and receding angles, the 

 convexity of Brazil opposite to the Gulf of Guinea, that of 

 Africa under the same parallel, with the Gulf of the Antilles, 

 all favour this apparently speculative view. J In this Atlantic 

 valley; as is almost everywhere the case in the configuration 

 of large continental masses, coasts deeply indented, and rich 

 in islands, are situated opposite to those possessing a different 

 character. I long since drew attention to the geognostic 

 importance of entering into a comparison of the western, 

 coast of Africa and of South America within the tropics. 

 The deeply curved indentation of the African continent 



* Of Africa, Pliny says (v. 1) " Nee alia pars terrarum pauciores recipit 

 sinus." The small Indian peninsula on this side the Ganges presents,. 

 in its triangular outline, a third analogous form. In ancient Greece, 

 there prevailed an opinion of the regular configuration of the dry land. 

 There were four gulfs or bays, among which the Persian Gulf was placed 

 in opposition to the Hyrcanian or Caspian Sea, (Arrian, vii. 16; Plut., In 

 vita Alexandri, cap. 44; Dionys. Perieg., v. 48 and 630, pp. 11, 38, 

 Bernh). These four bays and the isthmuses were, according to the 

 optical fancies of Agesianax, supposed to be reflected in the moon. 

 (Plut., De Facie in orbem Lunce, pp. 921, 19). Respecting the terra, 

 quadriftda, or four divisions of the dry land, of which two lay north and 

 two south of the equator, see Macrobius, Comm. in Somnium Scipionis* 

 ii. 9. I have submitted this portion of the geography of the ancients,, 

 regarding which great confusion prevails, to a new and careful examina- 

 tion, in my Examen crit. de I'Hist. de la Geogr., t. i. pp. 119, 145, 180- 

 185, as also in Asie centr., t. ii. pp. 172-178. 



f Fieurieu, in Voyage de Marcliand autour du Monde, t. iv. pp. 

 38-42. 



J Humboldt, in the Journal de Physique, liii., 1799, p. 33; and 

 Rel. hist., t. ii. p. 19, t. iii. pp. 189, 198. 



