[ *9 ] 



It is- poffibie, indeed, that this may be accounted for by the 

 Antarctic feas being more mallow than thofe near the North 

 Pole ; as we do not know this, however, by the actual foundings, 

 but are informed by Captain Furneaux, that there is no land 

 even as far as the Antarctic circle, upon the meridian in which 

 he failed, as alfo that no land was obferved during the courfe 

 of his circumnavigation in 55 S. lat. at a medium, it feems 

 necefiary, as the quantity of land fo greatly preponderates in the 

 Northern hemifphere, that from N. lat. Sol. to the Pole itfelf 

 muft be chiefly, if not entirely, fea *. 



Let us now confider, whether fuch a fea is probably at all 

 times in a ftate of congelation. 



I do not know, whether it hath been fettled by thermometrical 

 obfervations, that there is any material difference between the 

 heat under the Equator, and that which is experienced within 

 the Tropics ; molt travellers complain indefinitely of its excefs in 

 fuch latitudes* 



As this point, therefore, feems not to have been fettled by the 

 thermometer, let us have recourfe to what is found to be the 

 freezing point upon mountains, lituated almoit under the Equa- 

 tor, and compare it with the fame height on the Pic of TenerifF, 

 which being in N. lat. 28, is five degrees to the Northward of 

 the tropical limits. 



The French Academicians fuppofe, that the freezing point, at 

 which all vegetation ceafes, and ice takes place, commences on 

 Cotopaxi, at 141 1 toifes above the level of the fea; or, by our 

 meafure, at the height of about a mile and three quarters ". 



Mr. . 



1 It is now known that Captain Cook alfo found very little land 

 during his perfevering attempts to the fouthward. 



u Cotopaxi is the higheft mountain of the Andes, at leaft in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Quito. The plain of Carabuca, from wh:ch it lifes, is 



10.23 



