THE KAUTIl. Ifil 



springs and rivulets are furnished with a very small supply. 

 Here, therefore, men and beasts would perish, and die for thirst, 

 if Providence had not ordered, that in the hardest winter, thaws 

 should inter^'ene, which deposit a small quantity of snow-- water 

 in pools under the ice ; and from this source the wretched inha- 

 bitants drain a scanty beverage. 



Thus, whatever quarter of the globe we turn to, we shall iind 

 new reasons to be satisfied with that part of it in which we re- 

 side. Our rivers furnish all the plenty of the African stream, 

 without its inundation ; they have all the coolness of the polar 

 rivulet, with a more constant supply ; they may want the terri- 

 ble 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 manage- 

 ble, and only wait the will of man to take their direction. Ths 

 rivers of the torrid zone, like the monarchs of the country, rule 

 with despotic t}Tanny ; profuse in their bounties, and ungovern- 

 able 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 

 human sagacity, and only at freedom to distribute happiness and 

 plenty. 



CHAP. XV. 



OF THE OCEAN IN GENERAL ; AND Of ITS SAI.TNESS. 



If 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 waters is diffused round 

 both the Old and New Continent, to the south ; and may sur- 

 round them also to the north, for what we know, but the ice in 

 those regions has stopped our inquiries. Although the ocean, 

 iiroperly speaking, is but one extensive sheet of waters, conti- 

 nued over every part of the globe, without interruption, and al- 

 though no part of it is divided from the rest, yet geographers 

 have distinguished it by different names ; as, the Atlantic or 

 Western ocean, the Nurilcrn ocean, the Southern ocean, the 



