Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/58

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

36

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF PERU.

difficulty, have imagined new lands beneath the antarctic polar circle, and have endeavoured to support their hypotheses by the discoveries of Hawkins, Brovers, De La Roche, Sec. With what enthusiasm are they not described by Maupertuis! and what advantages does he not prognosticate to the hero of the north, provided he should undertake to achieve the conquest of them! This philosopher may be aptly compared to Anaxarchus the Abderite, whose ravings excited the ambition, and drew forth the tears of Alexander^[1]. The author of the discourse prefixed to the voyage of M. Bougainville to the Malvine Isles, estimates the superficies of the rare continent in question at ten millions of square miles—an extent greater by a million of square miles than that of all the countries hitherto known^[2]. When the immortal Cook approached to ascertain its existence, it vanished like a phantom. The immense and fertile plains of New Zealand will be found to be nothing more than a few small and inclement isles.

In recording the real benefits by which we are surrounded, we shall not have recourse to vague or chimerical ideas. The

↑ Dignum fieri existimans, quod cum mundi sint inflnici, nondum uniusdominus foret. Plut. de tranq. an.
↑ The earth is a sphere, the Equator of which consists of 360 degrees; consequently, allowing to each degree twenty-five leagues, the result will give to its circumference 9000; and as the ratio of the diameter to its circumference is nearly as one to three, the diameter of the earth may be estimated at 3000 leagues. The superficies of a sphere is obtained by multiplying the circumference of its greater circles by its diameters; therefore, by multiplying 30CO by 9000, it will be found to contain a superficies of about twenty-seven millions of square leagues, deducting the curvature of the mountains. On a comparison of the continents and habitable islands with the seas, it will appear that they scarcely occupy the third part of the globe; consequently, their entire superficies should be about nine millions of square leagues.

enormous

[1] Dignum fieri existimans, quod cum mundi sint inflnici, nondum uniusdominus foret. Plut. de tranq. an.

[2] The earth is a sphere, the Equator of which consists of 360 degrees; consequently, allowing to each degree twenty-five leagues, the result will give to its circumference 9000; and as the ratio of the diameter to its circumference is nearly as one to three, the diameter of the earth may be estimated at 3000 leagues. The superficies of a sphere is obtained by multiplying the circumference of its greater circles by its diameters; therefore, by multiplying 30CO by 9000, it will be found to contain a superficies of about twenty-seven millions of square leagues, deducting the curvature of the mountains. On a comparison of the continents and habitable islands with the seas, it will appear that they scarcely occupy the third part of the globe; consequently, their entire superficies should be about nine millions of square leagues.

[1]

[2]