*
[footnote] *Strabo, lib. i., p. 65, Casaub. See Humboldt, 'Examen Crit.',
t. i., p. 152.
As we have already remarked, one hemisphere of the earth (whether we divide
the sphere through the equator or through the meridian of Teneriffe) has a
much greater expansion of elevated land than the opposite one: these two
vast ocean-girt tracts of land, which we term the eastern and western, or
the Old and New Continents, present, however, conjointly with the most
striking contrasts of configuration and position of their axes, some
similarities of form, especially with reference to the mutual relations of
their opposite coasts. In the eastern continent, the predominating
direction -- the position of the major axis -- inclines from east to west
(or, more correctly speaking, from southwest to northeast), while in the
western continent it inclines from south to north (or, rather, from
south-southeast to north-northwest). Both terminate to the north at a
parallel coinciding nearly with that of 70??degrees, while they extend to
the south in pyramidal points, having submarine prolongations of islands and
shoals. Such, for instance, are the Archipelago of Tierra del Fuego, the
Lagullas Bank south of the Cape of Good Hope, and Van Diemen's Land,
separated from New Holland by Bass's Straits.
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