88 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY—THE LAND. 



member lying between Australia and South 

 America, and also ending with an island — New 

 Leinster — to the south. Another remarkable 

 feature in the configuration of our present con- 

 tinents is this : that almost under the same 

 meridians under which the most southern 

 stretches of the land are made, the northern 

 coasts alsolhoot out and reach the highest lat- 

 itudes towards the arctic pole. This appears 

 on comparing the Cape of Good Hope and the 

 Lagullas bank with the North Cape, and the 

 peninsula of Malacca with Cape Taimura in 

 Siberia(3^°). Whether the poles are girded 

 with terra firma, or surrounded by an ocean 

 covered with horizontal strata of ice (consoli- 

 dated water), we know not. The North-pole 

 has been approached as high as 82° 55' N. lat- 

 itude ; the South-pole not higher than 78° 10' 

 S. latitude. 



In the same way as the great continental 

 masses terminate pyramidally towards the 

 south, the like configuration is variously and 

 almost everywhere repeated on a smaller scale, 

 not only in the great Indian Ocean (the penin- 

 sulas of Arabia, Hindostan, and Malacca), but 

 also, as observed by Eratosthenes and Polybi- 

 us, in the Mediterranean, where the Iberian, 

 Italian, and Hellenic peninsulas present corre- 

 sponding sensible configurations(2"). Europe, 

 with an area of but one-fifth that of Asia, is in 

 like manner but a western, many-membered 

 peninsula of the Asiatic and almost undivided 

 portion of the globe ; and the climatic peculi- 

 arities of Europe also show that it stands to 

 Asia very much in the same relationship as 

 the peninsula of Brittany does to the rest of 

 France(3i2). The influence which the subdi- 

 visions of a continent, the higher development 

 of its form, exerts at once upon the manners 

 and whole civilization of a people, is obviously 

 particularly alluded to by Strabo(3"), when he 

 commends the "greatly diversified form" of 

 our small division of the globe, as an especial 

 advantage. Africa(2^*) and South America, 

 which in other respects exhibit such similari- 

 ties in their configuration, are those among the 

 great masses of land which have the simplest 

 outhnes of coast. It is only the eastern sea- 

 board of Asia, broken in upon by the currents 

 of the east sea (fractas ex aequore terras), that 

 shows variety and irregularity of outline(2^^). 

 Peninsulas and a succession of islands there 

 alternate from the equator to 60° of N. latitude. 



Our Atlantic Ocean bears every feature of 

 a great valley. It is as if floods had directed 

 their shocks successively to the north-east, 

 then to the north-west, and then to the north- 

 east again. The parallelism of the opposite 

 coasts northward from 10° of S. latitude, their 

 advancing and retreating angles, the convexity 

 of the shores of Brazil opposite those of the 

 Gulf of Guinea, the convexity of Africa under 

 the same parallels of latitude as the deep inden- 

 tation formed by the Gulf of Mexico, all vouch 

 for this apparently bold view(3'6). In this Atlan- 

 tic valley, as almost everywhere else in the 

 configuration of great masses of land, indented 

 and isle-studded shores stand opposite to unin- 

 dented coasts. It is long since I directed at- 

 tention to the circumstance how remarkable in 

 a geological point of view was the comparison 

 of the west coasts of Africa and South Amer- 



ica within the tropics. The deep bay-like in- 

 ward sweep of the African coast by Fernando 

 Po (4i° N. lat.), is repeated on the American 

 continent under 18^° S. lat. at the tropical 

 point near Arica, where (between the Valle de 

 Arica and the Morro de Juan Diaz) the Peru- 

 vian coast suddenly changes its course from 

 south to north into a north-western direction. 

 This change of direction extends in like meas- 

 ure to the lofty chain of the Andes, which here 

 proceeds in two parallel connected lines ; and 

 not only to the lofty plateaus near the coast(3i7)^ 

 but also to the eastern plains, the earliest seat 

 of human civilization in the South American 

 continent, where the little alpine lake of Titi- 

 caca is bounded by the colossal mountains, 

 Sorata and Illimani. Farther towards the south, 

 from Valdivia and Chiloe (40'^ to 42° S. lat.), 

 through the Archipelago de los Chonos on to 

 the Terra del Fuego, the curious Fiord-forma- 

 tion, the complication of narrow, deeply-pene- 

 trating bays or arms of the sea, is repeated, 

 which, in the northern hemisphere, we find 

 characterizing the west coasts of Norway and 

 of Scotland. 



Such are the most general considerations 

 that suggest themselves on the configuration of 

 continents (the extension of the dry land in a 

 horizontal direction), as a survey of the surface 

 of our planet offers them at the present time. 

 We have here placed facts in juxtaposition, 

 analogies in form occurring in remote districts 

 of the earth, which, however, we do not ven- 

 ture to speak of as Laws of Form. When on 

 the flanks of a still active volcano, of Vesuvius 

 for example, we observe the not uncommon 

 phenomenon of partial upheavings of the soil, 

 in which small portions of the solid earth, 

 either before or in the course of an eruption, 

 permanently change their level by several feet, 

 and rise in penthouse-like ridges or flat eleva- 

 tions, we perceive how it must depend on tri- 

 fling accidents of intensity in the force of sub- 

 terraneous vapours, and in the amount of re- 

 sistance to be overcome, that the upheaved 

 parts assume this or that form and direction. 

 Even so may slight disturbances of the equi- 

 librium in the interior of our planet have deter- 

 mined the upheaving elastic forces to operate 

 towards the Northern in a greater degree than 

 towards the Southern hemisphere ; to throw 

 up the Eastern hemisphere as a broad continu- 

 ous mass with its principal axis running nearly 

 parallel to the equator, the Western and more 

 oceanic hemisphere, again, as a narrower band, 

 with its axis nearly in the plane of the meridian. 



On the aetiological connection of such grand 

 incidents in the production of the dry land, of 

 similarity and contrast in the configuration of 

 continents, there is little to be made out em- 

 pirically. We only know one thing : that the 

 efficient cause is subterraneous ; that the pres- 

 ent fashion of continents and islands has not 

 been obtained at once ; but, as has been al- 

 ready observed, that from the epoch of the Si- 

 lurian formation (Neptunian separation), on to 

 that of the tertiary deposits, there have been 

 many alternate elevations and depressions of 

 the surface, which, on the whole, has gradually 

 increased in extent, and, from numerous small- 

 er divisions, has coalesced into the larger 



