282 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



river to Behring's Straits, where the eastern extremity of 

 Asia (Cook's East Cape) is, according to Beechey, in 

 66 3' N. lat. ( 339 ) The northern shore of the new continent 

 follows the 70th parallel with tolerable exactness, for the 

 lands to the north and south of Barrow's Straits are detached 

 islands. 



The pyramidal form of all the southern terminations of 

 continents belong to those " similitudines physicse in con- 

 figuratione mundi," to which Bacon called attention in the 

 Novum Organum, and with which Beinhold Eorster, one of 

 the companions of Cook on his second voyage of circum- 

 navigation, connected some ingenious considerations. Direct- 

 ing our attention eastward from the meridian of Teneriffe, 

 we perceive that the terminations of the three continent^ 

 t. e. the southern extremities of Africa, Australia, and 

 America, successively approach nearer to the South Pole. 

 New Zealand, which is fully twelve degrees of latitude in 

 length, seems to form a regular intermediate member between 

 Australia and South America; its southern termination is 

 likewise marked by an island, New Leinster. We may 

 notice, further, as a remarkable circumstance, that tlie 

 projecting points of the old continent, both to the north and 

 to the south, are nearly under the same meridian ; thus the 

 Cape of Good Hope and the Lagullas bank are situated nearly 

 in the same meridian as the north cape of Europe ; and the 

 peninsula of Malacca nearly in that of Cape Taimura. ( 34 ) 

 We know not whether the two poles of the Earth are sur-* 

 rounded by land, or by an ice -covered sea; towards the 

 North Pole, the parallel of 82 55' has been reached, and 

 towards the South Pole, that of 78 10'. 



The pyramidal terminations of the great continents are 

 frequently repeated on a smaller scale, not only in the Indian 



