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 regions. In fig. 5, scarcely any of the land extends from the equator towards the poles beyond the 30th parallel of latitude; and fig. 6, a very small proportion of it extends from the poles towards the Equator beyond the 40th parallel of latitude.