*

this, while the ANTARCTIC Occupies a wider surface than the Atlantic. The Arctic basin is the Frozen Ocean. It comprises a great part of the space within the seventieth parallel. It was most interestingly disclosed to us by Captain Parry's courageous voyages, but, from its ice, has not been found pervious to any passage, nor is ever likely to be so.

Of the minor seas, the MEDITERRANEAN is the most important, and embraces an area, very nearly, of 1,000,000 square miles.

The BLACK SEA and Sea of Azoph discharge their superfluous waters into the Mediterranean. They occupy a superficial space of 170,000 miles; but receiving the waters of a surface five times as large as their own, they have a constant efflux.

The BALTIC, 1200 miles long, présents a space of 175,000 square miles, including the Cattegat; and receiving the waters of a surface nearly five times as large as its own, it has an efflux current, and its waters are remarkably fresh. Its mean depth is 60 fathoms. The NORTH SEA spreads over an extent of 160,000 square miles, from Calais to Orkney.

But this state and proportion of these seas seem to be undergoing some alterations, which have been only noticed in a few places, and therefore may be only local and partial; yet the distance between the sites of the changes being no

while its northern division abounds in large islands and in deep and numerous inland seas. Few great rivers fall into this sea on the east side, but on the west it receives the three largest on the globe-the Plata, Amazon, and Mississippi."-Sup. Enc. Brit. p. 167.

"Its length is about 4,500 miles. Its mean breadth is nearly the same, and it covers a surface of about 17,000,000 square miles. Its shores are generally mountainous. It contains many islands, two large open bays, and two deep inlets, the Persian Gulf and Red Sea. A particular system of winds, called monsoons, prevail in the northern part of this basin."-Ib. "The Antarctic basin surrounds the south pole. It joins the Pacific in the latitude of 50o, and the Indian Ocean at 400. It embraces an area of about 30,000,000 square miles. This sea is generally covered with floating ice as far north as latitude 600."-Ib.

This, "the finest inland sea in the world, is 2350 miles long, and from 100 to 650 broad, including the Adriatic. It expends probably three times as much water as it receives. Hence its surface is said to be 34 feet lower than the Red Sea. Like all inland seas which open to the west, it has no general tides; but local tides are felt, which rise three feet at Venice, one foot at Naples, one or two at Toulon, and six inches on the Syrian coast. A current circulates round the line of its coasts."Ib. p. 167. Ib. p. 168.

less than that of the whole hemisphere of the globe, they may be also taking place in other regions where they have not yet been attended to.* The same fact occurs also in the Caspian; as if the waters on the earth were, from some cause or other not yet discerned, actually diminishing.t

Upon that one fourth of our globular circumference which the Creator appointed to be the land portion of our surface, he was pleased to cause those interesting collections of the watery fluid which we call LAKES. They are distinguished from the oceanic liquid by being fresh water instead of salt, unless they are near a saline soil. They are "among those natural objects which contribute, in the highest degree, to the picturesque beauty of the earth's surface. Like the sea, they exercise a beneficial influence on the climate and soil, by moderating the extremes of heat and cold, and by diffu

* I allude to the facts, that the sea has been recently observed to be retiring, both from the coasts of China and from those of the Baltic. Of the former, M. Gutzlaff writes, on his voyage in 1832, of the island of Formosa, "The sea recedes from the land so rapidly, that many harbours, once good, are now inaccessible even for small junks. The land latterly is increased to such a degree, that large shoals have become visible all along the coast, and the approach to it is consequently dangerous."-Gutz. Journ. Voy. p. 204. So on the coast of China itself, in January, 1833, on the north coast of Chekeang, in lat. 30° 37', "The whole coast from the Yellow river is very flat. The sea is everywhere receding from the land; so that the flats formed along the shore, which are dry at low water, constitute a barrier to the whole coast, and are gradually becoming arable soil."-Ib. p. 429. He mentions the same of the coast of Fuhkeen: "The sea seems here to be receding, for the lands belonging to this people ten years ago were sea, and are yearly increasing in extent."-Ib. p. 171.

As to the BALTIC, the Commercial Gazette of St. Petersburgh, of 28th May, 1834, states,-"It has been remarked, that during the last 20 years the water in this port has become considerably lowered!" It adds, "The lakes of Denmark have sunk so low, that some of them are almost entirely without water. It is incontestable that the mainland washed by the Baltic is enlarging; that the rivers and lakes diminish in depth: that banks are forming in the seaports; and that sooner or later the inhabitants of the shores of this sea will be driven to dig canals, and perhaps to lay down iron rail-roads, in order to maintain their commerce."-It was mentioned at the meeting of the British Association of Science in September, 1834, that Mr. Lyell, who had recently returned from a tour in Sweden, had ascertained that the land on the coast of Sweden has within the last hundred years gained somewhat more than three feet.-Athen. 1834, p. 698.

† Lieut. Burnes visited this inland sea in 1832, and remarks, "There is a prevalent belief that the waters on the southern side of the Caspian have been receding. During these twelve years they have retired about three hundred yards, of which I have ocular proof."-Burnes' Trav. Bokhara, v. ii, p. 122.

sing humid vapours over the land."* We have two grand systems of lakes in the old continent. The one accompanies the great Alpine girdle.† The other begins at the lower shores of Holland, and extends to Bhering's Straits.‡

Africa has but few lakes, except in its central regions. But in America a chain of lakes, though generally smaller than those of the old world, accompanies the Andes; while in its northern hemisphere, "the regions round Hudson's Bay present a multitude of lakes, corresponding in number, character, and geographical situation, with those which skirt the shores of the Baltic and Frozen Ocean." The CASPIAN is the largest lake in the world, and has much of the character of an inland sea. It is most remarkable for the extraordinary lowness of its surface, by which it is distinguished from all the other lakes and seas in the world, and for which no satisfactory reason has yet been given. ¶ There are two lakes in Judea which have become peculiarly interesting to the intelligent mind, from the impressive circumstances which have been connected with them-the lake of Gennesareth in Galilee, and the Dead Sea, which has so much arrested the notice of all ages by its unparalleled state and nature. This, however, was formed some centuries after the deluge; but the other arose from that event.** The depths of the

* "Lakes are chiefly of two kinds: those which are formed in deep hollows between the ridges or at the foot of mountains, and which are fed by springs or torrents; and those which are formed in low and level countries, by the surplus water of rivers, or in consequence of the want of a general declivity of the ground."-Enc. Brit. Supp. 165.

†This "includes the lakes of the Pyrenees, Alps, Appenines; those of Asia Minor, Syria, and Persia, with the Caspian Sea, the Aral, Balkash, Baikal, and all the series of them found at the foot of the Altaic chain."-Ib.

"It extends along the southeast coast of the Baltic and Gulf of Bothnia, and thence in smaller numbers along the Frozen Ocean."-Ib. Ib.

"Its length is 750 miles; its breadth about 200; and it embraces an area of 170,000 square miles. Its general depth is 60 or 70 fathoms; but near the south end no bottom has been found at 380. It is salt, and subject to storms."-Ib.

"Its surface was found by Engelhardt and Parrott to be 334° beneath that of the Black Sea. The inhabitants, therefore, of Astracan and other places on its shores live at a lower level by 200 or 300 feet than any other people on the globe "-Tuckey, Marit. Geog. i. p. 451; Ed. Phil. Journ. No. 6, p. 408. Lieut. Burnes also found its level below that of the sea. "A thermometer which boils at sea at 212, here boiled at 2133, which, according to Humboldt, would give a depression of 800 feet; but this is much too great.-Burnes, Trav. Bokhara, v. ii. p. 122.

**The sea of Tiberias. "This immense lake is almost equal in the

lakes in some mountainous districts are often remarkably great.*

A considerable proportion of the land territory of the globe has been destined, since the deluge, to be occupied by rivers. It is the assigned office of these, to convey to the sea that portion of the rain waters falling upon the earth which does not pass off by evaporation, or go to nourish organic bodies. They invariably occupy the lowest parts of the surface of the districts, from which their waters are derived. Their channels are generally the work of their own currents; and if the new surface deposited by the deluge obliterated any such cavities in the antediluvian world, then all our rivers must have been excavated by these streams subsequent to that event. None can in this view claim a higher chronology.‡ Striking indications of the selfgrandeur of its appearance to that of Geneva. Its eastern shores present a sublime scene of mountains, extending towards the north and south, and seeming to close it in at either extremity, both toward Chorazin, where the Jordan enters, and the Aulon, or Campus Magnus, through which it flows into the Dead sea. The cultivated plains, reaching to its borders, resembled by their various hues a motley but vast carpet. To the north appeared snowy summits, towering beyond a series of intervening mountains with unspeakable greatness. It is longer and finer than any of the Cumberland and Westmoreland lakes, though it yields in majesty to the stupendous features of Loch Lomond. It does not possess the vastness of the Lake of Geneva; it is inferior in magnitude, and perhaps in the height of its mountains, to the Lake Asphaltides; but its broad and ex tended surface covers the bottom of a profound valley, environed by lofty and precipitous eminences. Along the borders of this lake may still be seen the remains of those ancient tombs, HEWN by the earliest inhabitants of Galilee in the rocks which face the water; the rocks about which have a VOLCANIC appearance. Among the pebbles of its shore were pieces of a porous rock, resembling the substance called toad-stone in England; its cavities were filled with zeolite. Native gold was found here formerly. Among these stones was a beautiful but very diminutive shell, a nondescript species of buccenum."-Dr. Clarke's Travels.

*"That of Loch Ness, on the line of the Caledonian Canal, is 130 fathoms in some parts, which is four times the mean depth of the German sea; and its bottom is actually thirty fathoms below the deepest part of that sea, between the latitudes of Dover and Inverness. The bottom of the Lake of Geneva, at the depth of 161 fathoms, reaches from the high plateau which surrounds it, to within 200 feet of the level of the Mediterranean." Ene. Brit. S. p. 166.

"These districts are called their basins. The basin is bounded by high land, which is sometimes mountainous. The water descending from these collects into brooks. The brooks unite into rivulets. These united form the main trunk or river, which conveys the waters of the whole to the sea."-Ib. p. 160.

"The form and appearance of river-courses lead to the conclusion,

agency of the watery torrents, from the higher grounds, in forming these rivers, may be traced, and have been noticed in several parts of the world.* Rivers, therefore, cannot have been as they are, immediately after the flood; but must have taken several ages to form into what they now are; but not more than our usual chronology allows, for when water accumulates, the force of its collected weight is so tremendous, that it has burst through rocks with an instantaneous suddenness when least expected, and made a chasm in a Yet some moment, and a channel rapidly afterward. theorists prefer to allow some thousands of years for such formations.†

Besides carrying off the superfluous waters from the land, rivers perform the most important office of fertilizing the districts through which they flow. Wherever there is water, there are vegetation, life, and beauty. Even sandy deserts become, as we have remarked, spots of nutrition and pleasantness, where any spring or river moistens the surface. Rich products accompany their banks, effusions, inundations, and neighbourhood. The country which abounds with them is ever fertile and prosperous, and when once inhabited and cultivated, is distinguished by its opulence and population.

that their channels are generally the work of their own currents. We never find them flowing in cavities which retain their natural shape; but always in beds cut below the adjoining surface, and corresponding to the quantity of water. They do not accommodate themselves to the surface of the country; but flow near the surface, in low plains, and cut through a high ridge when it comes in the way; preserving a pretty uniform rate of descent, however great may be the undulations of the superior soil."--Enc. Brit. S. p. 160.

* "The celebrated passage of Ecluse has exactly the dimensions and appearance of a channel cut by the Rhone itself; and exhibits marks of the action of the water far above the present surface.

"In the Danube may be distinguished the basins of Bavaria, Austria,. and Hungary; from each of which the river escapes by a mountainous defile. The celebrated defile of Tempe in Thessaly; the deep and rugged clefts by which the Potomac, Susquehanna, and Delaware penetrate the barrier of the Alleghanies, all bear decisive marks of the action of the stream."--Ib. 161.

Thus one gentleman has imagined that "it may be inferred, from calculation, that 50,000 years have elapsed since the waters of the St. Lawrence began to flow"!!! But the human mind loves often to deviate into extravagances. In one age it invents pagods; in another, auguries and divinations; in another, witches and fortune-tellers; and in our own, many physical chimeras, gravely dressed and sometimes largely patronised.

VOL. II.-D d