122 HISTORY OF 



bind it together. In consequence of this theory, 

 Kircher has given us a map of the earth, in this 

 manner hooped with its mountains ; which might 

 have a much more solid foundation, did it entire- 

 ly correspond with truth. 



Others have found a different use for them, 

 especially when they run surrounding our globe, 

 which is, that they stop the vapours which are 

 continually travelling from the equator to the 

 poles ; for these being urged by the heat of the 

 sun from the warm regions of the line, must all 

 be accumulated at the poles, if they were not 

 stopped in their way by those high ridges of 

 mountains which cross their direction. But an 

 answer to this may be, that all the great moun- 

 tains in America lie lengthwise, and therefore do 

 not cross their direction. 



But to leave these remote advantages, others 

 assert, that not only the animal but vegetable 

 part of the creation would perish for want of con- 

 venient humidity, were it not for their friendly 

 assistance. Their summits are, by these, suppos- 

 ed to arrest, as it were, the vapours which float 

 in the regions of the air. Their large inflexions 

 and channels are considered as so many basins 

 prepared for the reception of those thick va- 

 pours, and impetuous rains, which descend into 

 them. The huge caverns beneath are so many 

 magazines or conservatories of water for the pe- 

 culiar service of man : and those orifices by which 

 the water is discharged upon the plain, are so 

 situated as to enrich and render them fruitful, in- 

 stead of returning through subterraneous chan- 



