tropics are loftier than those of the temperate zones, and these more than the frigid zones, so that the nearer we approach the equator, the greater are the inequalities of the earth. These inequalities, although very considerable with respect to us, are scarcely any thing when considered with respect to the whole globe. Three thousand fathom difference to 3000 leagues diameter, is but one fathom to a league, or one foot to 2200 feet, which on a globe of 2-1/2 feet diameter, does not make the 16th part of a French line. Thus the earth, which appears to us crossed and intersected by the enormous height of mountains, and by a frightful depth of sea, is nevertheless, relative to its size, but slightly furrowed with irregularities, so very trifling, that they can cause no difference to the general figure of the globe. In continents the mountains are continued and form chains. In islands, they are more interrupted, and generally raised above the sea, in the forms of cones or pyramids, and are called peaks. The peak of Teneriffe, in the island of Fer, is one of the highest mountains on the earth; it is near a league and a half perpendicular above the level of the sea; the peak of St. George, in one of the Azores, and the peak of Adam, in the island of Ceylon, are also very lofty. These peaks are composed of rocks, heaped one upon the other, and they vomit from their summits fire, cinders, bitumen, minerals, and stones. There are islands which are only tops of mountains, as of St. Helena, Ascension, most of the Azores, and Canaries. We must remark, that in most of the islands, promontories, and other projecting lands in the sea, the middle is always the highest; and they are generally separated by chains of mountains, which divide them in their greatest length, as (Gransbain) the Grampian mountains in Scotland, which extend from east to west, and divide Great Britain into two parts. It is the same with the islands of Sumatra, Lucca, Borneo, Celebes, Cuba, St. Domingo, and the peninsula of Malaya, &c. and also Italy, which is traversed through its whole length by the Apennine mountains. Mountains, as we find, differ greatly in height; the hills are lowest, after them come the mountains of a moderate height, which are followed by a third rank still higher, which, like the preceding, are generally loaded with trees and plants, but which furnish no springs except at their bottoms. In the highest mountains we find only sand, stones, flints, and rocks, whose summits often rise above the clouds. Exactly at the foot of these rocks there are small spaces, plains, hollows, and kinds of vallies, where the rain, snow, and ice remain, and form ponds, morasses, and springs, from whence rivers derive their origin.