Of the polar lands little is known. Greenland probably is part of a continent, the domain of perpetual snow; and the recent discovery of so extensive a mass of high volcanic land near the south pole is an important event in the history of physical science, though the stern severity of the climate must for ever render it unfit for the abode of animated beings, or even for the support of vegetable life. It seems to form a counterpoise to the preponderance of dry land in the northern hemisphere. There is something sublime in the contemplation of these lofty and unapproachable regions—the awful realm of ever-during ice and perpetual fire, whose year consists of one day and one night. The strange and terrible symmetry in the nature of the lands within the polar circles, whose limits are to us a blank, where the antagonist principles of cold and heat meet in their utmost intensity, fills the mind with that awe which arises from the idea of the unknown and the indefinite. The tendency of the land to assume a peninsular form is very remarkable, and it is still more so that almost all the peninsulas tend to the south—circumstances that depend on some unknown cause which seems to have acted very extensively. The continents of South America, Africa, and Greenland, are peninsulas on a gigantic scale, all tending to the south; the Asiatic peninsula of India, the Indo-Chinese peninsula, those of Corea, Kamtchatka, of Florida, California, and Aliaska, in North America, as well as the European peninsulas of Norway and Sweden, Spain and Portugal, Italy and Greece, take the same direction. All the latter have a rounded form except Italy, whereas most of the others terminate sharply, especially the continents of South America and Africa, India, and Greenland, which have the pointed form of wedges; while some are long and narrow, as California, Aliaska, and Malacca. Many of the peninsulas have an island or group of islands at their extremity, as South America, which terminates with the group of Tierra del Fuego: India has Ceylon; Malacca has Sumatra and Banca; the southern extremity of New Holland ends in Van Dieman’s Land; a chain of islands run from the end of the peninsula of Aliaska; Greenland has a group of islands at its extremity; and Sicily lies close to the termination of Italy. It has been observed as another peculiarity in the structure of peninsulas that they generally terminate boldly, in bluffs, promontories, or mountains, which are often the last portions of the continental chains. South America terminates in Cape Horn, a high promontory, which is the visible termination of the Andes; Africa with the Cape of Good Hope; India with Cape Comorin, the last of the Ghauts; New Holland ends with South-East Cape in Van Dieman’s Land; and Greenland’s farthest point is the elevated bluff of Cape Farewell.[16]