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“ angles of Europe , Africa , and America ,“ evince, that the old and new Continents“ have been divided by the action of water,“• and that the Atlantic is a valley so exca-“ vated.”

In looking at a map of the world, it isnot difficult certainly to discover occasionalappearances of corresponding bays andpromontories. The coast of Guinea forms,if you please, a salient, and that of Congo ,a re-entering angle, commensurate with there-entering angle of Mexico , and the sa-lient angle of Brazil ; but does the corre-spondence extend along the whole lineof continents, or is it of such rare occur-rence, that the rule is lost in the ex-ceptions ? If this reciprocity of form,did, indeed, pervade the coasts of oppositehemispheres, we should have reason todoubt, whether it might not have arisen inother places, from a different cause than isnow assigned to it. Upon what do thesinuosities of running water depend ? uponits oscillation ; upon its falling away alter-nately from one side to the other, in con-sequence of obstacles; upon its tendency to