The earth and man: lectures on comparative physical geography, in its relation to the history of mankind / By Arnold Guyot. Translated from the French, by C. C. Felton.

  • Arnaud Henri Guyot
Date:
1849
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The earth and man: lectures on comparative physical geography, in its relation to the history of mankind / By Arnold Guyot. Translated from the French, by C. C. Felton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of islands. When, finally, we reflect that a. depression of a few hundred feet, which would make no change in the essential forms of the solid mass of the globe, would cause a great part of Asia and of Europe to disappear beneath the water of the oceans, and would reduce America to a few large islands, we might draw from it the conclusion, that the external shape of the continents has but an in- considerable importance. • But in physics, neither of these circumstances is unim- portant. Simple examples, without further demonstration, will be sufficient to set this in a clear light. Is the question of the forms of contour? Nothing characterizes Europe better than the variety of its indent- ations, of its peninsulas, of its islands. Suppose, for a moment, that beautiful Italy, Greece with its entire Archi- pelago, were added to the central mass of the continent, and augmented Germany or Russia by the number of square miles they contain; this change of form would not give us another Germany, but we should have an Italy and a Greece the less. Unite with the body of Europe all its islands and peninsulas into one compact mass, and instead of this continent, so rich in various elements, you will have a New Holland with all its uniformity. Do we look to the forms of relief, of height ? Is it a matter of indifference whether an entire country is eleva- ted into the dry and cold regions of the atmosphere, like the central table land of Asia, or is placed on the level of the ocean ? See, under the same sky, the warm and fertile plains of Hindoostan, adorned with the brilliant vegetation of the tropics, and the cold and desert plateaus of Upper