94 A HISTORY OF 



Thus, whatever quarter of the globe we turn to, we snail find new 

 reasons to be satisfied with that part of it in .vhich we reside. Our 

 rivers furnish all the plenty of the African stream, without its inun- 

 dation ; they have all the coolness of the polar rivulet, with a more 

 constant supply ; they may want the terrible magnificence of huge 

 cataracts, or extensive lakes, but they are more navigable, and more 

 transparent; though less deep and rapid than the rivers of the torrid 

 zone, they are more manageable, and only wait the will of man to 

 take their direction. The rivers of the torrid zone, like the monarchs 

 of the country, rule with despotic tyranny ; profuse in their bounties, 

 and ungovernable in their rage. The rivers of Europe, like their 

 kings, are the friends, and not the oppressors of the people ; bounded 

 by known limits, abridged in the power of doing ill, directed by hu 

 man sagacity, and only at freedom to distribute happiness and plenty 



CHAPTER XV. 



OP THE OCEAN IN GENERAL ; AND OP ITS SALTNESS. 



IP we look upon a map of the world, we shall find that the ocean 

 occupies considerably more of the globe, than the land is found to do. 

 This immense body of water is diffused round both the Old and New 

 Continent, to the south ; and may surround them also to the north, 

 for what we know, but the ice in those regions has stopped our in- 

 quiries. Although the ocean, properly speaking, is but one extensive 

 sheet of waters, continued over every part of the globe, without in- 

 terruption, and although no part of it is divided from the rest, yet 

 geographers have distinguished it by different names ; as the Atlantic 

 or Western Ocean, the Northern Ocean, the Southern Ocean, the Pa- 

 cific Ocean, and the Indian Ocean. Others have divided it different- 

 ly, and given other names ; as th.e Frozen Ocean, the Inferior Ocean, 

 or the American Ocean. But all these being arbitrary distinctions, 

 and not of Nature's making, the naturalist may consider them with 

 indifference. 



In this vast receptacle, almost all the rivers of the earth ultimately 

 terminate ; nor do such great supplies seem to increase its stores ; for 

 it is neither apparently swollen by their tribute, nor diminished by 

 their failure ; it still continues the same. Indeed, what is the quan- 

 tity of water of all the rivers and lakes in the world, compared to that 

 contained in this great receptacle ?* If we should offer to make a rude 

 estimate, we shall find that all the rivers in the world, flowing into the 

 bed of the sea, with a continuance of their present stores, would take 

 tip at least eight hundred years to fill it to its present height. For, 

 supposing the sea to be eighty-five millions of square miles in extent, 

 und a quarter of a mile, upon an average, in depth, this, upon calcu- 

 lation, will give about twenty-one millions of cubic miles of water, as 

 the contents of the whole ocean. Now, to estimate the quantity of 

 wate/" which all the rivers supply, take any one of them ; the Po, for 



vol. ii. p. 70. 



