Or three-fourths of our circumference,' we perceive that God's intention was, that it should in fact be a world of being in our globe, very different from that world of being, which He has formed and destined to be on land. For the ocean, with its branches, which He has diffused over this great portion, is like a new world of its own peculiar kind, both in its substance and in its living contents.3 Its waters cover an area of one hundred and forty-five millions and six hundred thousand square miles. He has divided this into five great basins, communicating with each other the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian Ocean, with the Arctic and Antarctic, each of unequal dimensions, besides some minor seas, as the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, and the Baltic; of these, the Pacific alone occupies a superficial space larger than the whole mass of dry land. Yet the fewest rivers discharge into it the waters from the land. It is distinguished for its coral formations and beautiful islands. It has the remarkable circumstance of being some feet lower than the Atlantic in the ebb of its tide. The Atlantic is but half the extent of the Pacific, yet it spreads over twenty-eight millions of square miles, exclusive of inland seas. The Indian is about two-thirds of the expanse of this, while the Antartic 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. At highwater, the Red Sea is more than ten yards higher than the Mediterranean. But the levels of the Mediterranean and the Ocean are very nearly the same. 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, 1,200 miles long, presents 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 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.-TURNER'S 'Sacred History.'

2. Being is here equivalent to life or existence. The double meaning of the word has given rise to much frivolous disputation. For some judicious remarks on it, the young teacher may consult Mill's Logic, chap. iii.

1. Better surely "of the circumference | it is not likely that the British Governof our globe." ment will risk more men or spend more money in seeking a passage that has probably no existence, and which, were it there, would be of little use. The Baltic is decreasing. Of this there can be now little reasonable doubt, the nature of the surrounding countries, and the recent observations being taken into consideration. The innumerable lakes that lie between it and the White Sea are nothing but the remains of a once continuous sea; which may be considered as proved by the appearance of similar animals in these waters, though now fresh, and the broad band of tertiary strata which extends throughout the whole space.

3. "The living animals that it contains" would seem to be better. We speak of the contents of a cask or a book, but scarcely of the contents of a forest or a sea, meaning thereby the animals or fishes that live in them.

4. It is in this sea that our ships are now (1852) looking for Sir John Franklin; but if his fate were once fairly ascertained,

THE fifteenth century belongs to those rare epochs in the history of the world, in which all the efforts of the human mind are invested with a determinate and common character, and manifest an unswerving direction towards a single object. The unity of these endeavours, the success with which they are crowned, and the vigour and activity displayed by entire nations, give grandeur and enduring splendour to the age of Columbus, of Sebastian Cabot, and of Vasco de Gama. Intervening between two different stages of cultivation, the fifteenth century forms a transition epoch belonging at once to the middle ages and to the commencement of modern times. It is the epoch of the greatest discoveries in geographical space, comprising almost all degrees of

latitude and almost every gradation of elevation of the earth's surface. To the inhabitants of Europe it doubled the works of creation, while at the same time it offered to the intellect new and powerful incitements to the improvement of the natural sciences in their physical and mathematical departments. The world of objects now, as in Alexander's campaigns, but with yet more preponderating power, presented to the combining mind the separate forms of sensible objects, and the concurrent action of animating powers or forces. The scattered images offered to the contemplation of the senses, notwithstanding their number and diversity, were gradually fused into a concrete whole; terrestrial nature was conceived in its generality, no longer according to mere presentiments or conjectures, floating in varying forms before the eye of fancy, but as a result of actual observation. The vault of heaven also offered to the yet unassisted eye new regions, adorned with constellations before unseen. As I have already remarked, at no period has there been offered to mankind a greater abundance of new facts, or fuller materials for the foundation of comparative physical geography.

I may add, that never were geographical or physical discoveries more influential on human affairs. A larger field of view was opened, commerce was stimulated by a great increase in the medium of exchange, as well as by a large accession to the number of natural productions valued for use or enjoyment; above all, there were laid the foundations of colonies, of a magnitude never before known; and through the agency of all these causes, extraordinary changes were wrought in manners and customs, in the condition of servitude long experienced by a portion of mankind, and in their late awakening to political freedom. When a particular epoch thus stands out in the history of mankind, as marked by important intellectual progress, we shall find, on examination, that preparations for this progress had been made during a long series of antecedent centuries. It does not appear to belong to the destinies of the human race that all portions of it should suffer eclipse or obscuration at the same time. A preserving principle maintains the ever-living process of the progress of reason.

The epoch of Columbus attained the fulfilment of its objects so rapidly, because their attainment was the development of fruitful germs, which had been previously deposited by a series of highly gifted men, who formed, as it were, a long beam of light which we may trace throughout the whole of what have been called the dark ages. A single century, the thirteenth, shows us Roger Bacon, Nicolaus Scotus, Albertus Magnus, and Vincentius of Beauvais. The subsequent more generally awakening of mental

activity soon bore fruit in the extension of geographical knowledge, when, in 1525, Diego Ribero returned from the geographico-astronomical congress which was held at the Puente de Caya, near Yelves, for the termination of differences respecting the boundaries of the two great empires of the Portuguese and Spanish monarchies; the outlines of the new continent had already been traced from Tierra del Fuego to the coasts of Labrador. On the western side, opposite to Asia, the advances were naturally less rapid; yet, in 1543, Rodriguez Cabrillo had already penetrated north of Monterey; and after this great and adventurous navigator had met his death off New California in the channel of Santa Barbara, the pilot Bartholomew Ferreto still led the expedition as far as the forty-third degree of latitude, where Vancouver's Cape Oxford is situated. The emulative activity of the Spaniards, English, and Portuguese, was then so great, that half a century sufficed to determine the outline or the general direction of the coasts of the western continent.-HUMBOLDT'S 'Cosmos.'

1. How? 2. What is "the medium of exchange," here referred to?

UPON that one-fourth of our globular surface1 which the Creator appointed to be dry land, He was pleased to cause those interesting collections of the watery fluid which we call lakes. Their waters are distinguished from those of the ocean by being fresh 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 diffusing 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 Behring'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

It

Baltic and Frozen Ocean. The Caspian is the largest lake in the world, and has much of the character of an inland sea. 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 Palestine 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 depth of the lakes in some mountainous districts is 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. The 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 selfagency 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 have formed 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 moment, and a channel rapidly afterwards. Yet some 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 is 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 cover their banks, and mark their neighbourhood, and follow from their inundations. The country which abounds with them is ever fertile and prosperous, and when once inhabited and cultivated, is dis