latitude corresponding to that of Yorkshire in
spite of all those equalizing causes before enumerated, by which the
mixture of the temperatures of distant regions is facilitated throughout
the globe, what rigors might we not anticipate in a winter generated by
the transfer of the mountains of India to our arctic circle!

But we have still to contemplate the additional refrigeration which
might be effected by changes in the relative position of land and sea in
the southern hemisphere. If the remaining continents were transferred
from the equatorial and contiguous latitudes to the south polar regions,
the intensity of cold produced might, perhaps, render the globe
uninhabitable. We are too ignorant of the laws governing the direction
of subterranean forces, to determine whether such a crisis be within the
limits of possibility. At the same time, it may be observed, that no
distribution of land can well be imagined more irregular, or, as it
were, capricious, than that which now prevails; for at present, the
globe may be divided into two equal parts, in such a manner, that one
hemisphere shall be almost entirely covered with water, while the other
shall contain less water than land (see figs. 3 and 4);[192] and, what
is still more extraordinary, on comparing the extratropical lands in the
northern and southern hemispheres, the lands in the northern are found
to be to those in the southern in the proportion of thirteen to
one![193] To imagine all the lands, therefore, in high, and all the sea
in low latitudes, as delineated in fig. 6, p. 111, would scarcely be a
more anomalous state of the surface.

[Illustration: Map showing the present unequal Distribution of LAND and
WATER on the Surface of the GLOBE.

Fig. 3. Here London is taken as a centre, and we behold the greatest
quantity of land existing in one hemisphere.

Fig. 4. Here the centre is the antipodal point to London, and we see the
greatest quantity of water existing in one hemisphere.

The black shading expresses land having land opposite or antipodal to
it.]

[Illustration: Maps showing the position of LAND and SEA which might
produce the Extremes of HEAT and COLD in the Climates of the GLOBE.

Fig. 5.

Extreme of Heat.

Fig. 6.

Extreme of Cold.

OBSERVATIONS.--These maps are intended to show that continents and
islands having the same shape and relative dimensions as those now
existing, might be placed so as to occupy either the equatorial or polar