Distribution of Rivers. 63 



the very low elevation of the general surface. Within the 

 Arctic regions there is no mountain range exceeding 5000 feet 

 in elevation, while the general surface is only a few hundred 

 feet above the sea level. In the Antarctic lands, volcanic 

 cones, apparently isolated, attain an elevation of 12,000 feet. 

 That there exists, therefore, a designed harmony of ar- 

 rangement between the zone of the greatest and most perma- 

 nent deposition of moisture, and the distribution of water- 

 sheds, which regulate the river courses, we think may be 

 rendered forcibly evident by supposing, for a moment, a 

 reverse arrangement to have existed. Suppose that the most 

 elevated parts of the earth had been towards the Arctic and 

 Antarctic circles, instead of being in the tropical and sub- 

 tropical zones, as they now are, we then would have had 

 probably the same, or nearly the same, deposition of mois- 

 ture, but it would have accumulated in the equatorial regions, 

 and formed immense morasses or numerous lakes. Suppose, 

 for instance, that the north watershed of Asia had been 

 placed in latitude 70° instead of 50° north; then we should 

 have had no rivers throughout all that vast region, the cold 

 of Siberia would have been doubled, and animal or vegetable 

 existence would have been barely possible. The same deso- 

 lation would have followed in the north of Europe had the 

 watershed been moved 20° degrees farther north. That the 

 greatest deposition of rain should take place within a limited 

 range of the equator seems a necessary consequence of the 

 other thermal arrangements of the globe ; but by the existing 

 arrangements of the elevations and slopes on the earth's 

 surface, this moisture is by means of rivers diffused on all 

 sides to the utmost points of the habitable land. Are we not 

 then, on the whole, entitled to conclude, that however irre- 

 gular and unsystematic may appear the distribution of the 

 mountain ranges on the globe, the same adjustment of means 

 to ends is as manifest in them as in the more minute and 

 elaborate, though not more important, structures of organ- 

 ised beings ? 



There are some other circumstances in the distribution Ox 

 rivers which may be cursorily glanced at. With the excep- 

 tion of those rivers on the north side of the great northern 



