ARTICLE VI.
GEOGRAPHY.
The surface of the Earth, like that of Jupiter, is not divided by bands alternative and parallel to the equator; on the contrary, it is divided from one pole to the other, by two bands of earth, and two of sea; the first and principal is the ancient continent, the greatest length of which is found to be in a line, beginning on the east point of the northern part of Tartary, and extending from thence to the land which borders on the gulph of Linchidolkin, where the Muscovites fish for whales; from thence to Tobolski, from Tobolski to the Caspian sea, from the Caspian sea to Mecca, and from Mecca to the western part of the country inhabited by the Galli, in Africa; afterwards to Monoemuci or Monomotapa, and at last to the Cape of Good Hope; this line, which is the greatest length of the
old continent, is about 3600 leagues, Paris measure; it is only interrupted by the Caspian and Red seas, the breadths of which are not very considerable, and we must not pay any regard to these interruptions, when it is considered, the surface of the globe is divided only in four parts.
This greatest length is found by measuring the old continent diagonally; for if measured according to the meridians, we shall find that there are only 2500 leagues from the northernmost Cape of Lapland to the Cape of Good Hope; and that the Baltic and Mediterranean cause a much greater interruption than is met with in the other way. With respect to all the other distances that might be measured in the old continent under the same meridian, we shall find them to be much smaller than this; having, for example, only 1800 leagues from the most southern point of the island of Ceylon to the northernmost coast of Nova Zembla. Likewise, if we measure the continent parallel to the equator, we find that the greatest uninterrupted length is found from Trefna, on the western coast of Africa, to Ninpo, on the eastern coast of China, and that it is about 2800 leagues. Another course may be measured
from the point of Brittany near Brest, extending to the Chinese Tartary; about 2300 leagues. From Bergen, in Norway, to the coast of Kamschatka, is no more than 1800 leagues. All these lines have much less length than the first, therefore the greatest extent of the old continent, is, in fact, from the eastern point of Tartary to the Cape of Good Hope, that is about 3600 leagues.
There is so great an equality of surface on each side of this line, which is also the longest, that there is every probability to suppose it really divides the contents of the ancient continent; for in measuring on one side is found 2,471,092-3/4 square leagues, and on the other 2,469,687.
Agreeable to this, the old continent consists of about 4,940,780 square leagues, which is nearly one-fifth of the whole surface of the globe, and has an inclination towards the equator of about 30 degrees.
The greatest length of the new continent may be taken in a line from the mouth of the river Plata to the lake of Assiniboils. From the former it passes to the lake Caracara; from thence to Mataguais, Pocona, Zongo, Mariana, Morua, St. Fe, and Carthagena; it then
proceeds through the gulph of Mexico, Jamaica, and Cuba, passes along the peninsula of Florida, through Apolache, Chicachas, and from thence to St. Louis, Fort le Suer, and ends on the borders of lake Assiniboils; the whole extent of which is still unknown.
This line, which is interrupted only by the Mexican gulph (which must be looked upon as a mediterranean sea) may be about 2500 leagues long, and divides the new continent into nearly two equal parts, the left of which contains about 1,069,286-5/6 leagues square, and that on the right about 1,070,926-1/12; this line, which forms the middle of the band of the new continent, is inclined to the equator about 30 degrees, but in an opposite direction, for that of the old continent extends from the north-east to the south-west, and that of the new continent from the north-west to the south-east. All those lands together of the old and new continent, make about 7,080,993 leagues square, which is not near the third of the whole surface, which contains 25 millions of square leagues.