WATER AND THE OCEAN 



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Denmark, becaufe the rivers there are fofmall, and bear a very incon- 

 liderable proportion to the immenfe ocean, which according to ex- 

 periments made by Mr. Wilke * is very fait, though near the 

 land, in the Swedifh harbour of Landfcrona.^ 



* 



Now, if fix orfeven degrees of latitude, containing from 360 to 

 420 fea miles, are not to be reckoned a great diflance from the land, ' 

 I do not know in what manner to argue, becaufe no diflance whatfoe- 



L 



L 



ver will be reckoned far from any land. Nay, if the CoiTack Mark 



ice-mountains, may b 



off, being mounted on one of the higheft ice-mountains, 

 allowed to fee at leafl to the diflance of 20 leagues, the extent al- 

 luded to above, mufl then be increafed to 480 Englifh fea-miles ; 

 which certainly is very confiderable, and makes it more than pro^ 

 bable, that the ocean is frozen in winter, in high Northern latitudes, 

 even as far as the Pole. Befides, it invalidates the argument, 

 which thefe gentlemen wifh to infer from thence, t^af the ocean. 



does not fi 



high latitudes, ejpecially where there is a conjidt 



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My broad Jea : for we have flieWn inflances to the contrary^ 



I 



But M. de BufFon fpeaks of ice carried down the rivers into the 

 Northern ocean, and forming there thefe immenfe quantities of 



ice ; 



*( 



" and in cafe, fays he -f, we would fuppofe, againfl all proba- 



L 



bility, -that at the Pole it could be fo cold as to congeal the fur- 



Mz 



ft 



face 



ICE 



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* Memoirs of the Swedifh Academy, vol. 33. p. 6a 



-f, BufTon Hift. Nat* torn, i. p« 313., 



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