Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Philosophical and Political History of the Settlements and Trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies, Vol. 4: Translated From the French of the Abbé Raynal
T1113 phenomenon, the canfo of which is not known, feems to depend much more on the fea than on the land. In the fix months that the river IS rifing, the hemifphere of the new world prefent's nothing but feas, at lea? but l1t£le land, to the perpendicular aftion of the rays of the fun. In the, fix months of its fall, America exhibits nothing but dry land to the planet by which it is illumi nated. The fea, at this time; is lefs fubjeét to the in?uence of the fun, or, at lea?z, its current towards the eal'tern {hore is more balanced, more broken by the land, and mull, therefore, leave a freer courfe to the r1vers, which, not being then fo firongly confined, by the fea, cannot be fwelled but by rains, or by the melting of the fnows from the Cordeleras. Perhaps, indeed, the rifing of the Waters of the Oronooko may depend entirely on. The ra1ny feafon; But to be thoroughly ac quainted with the caufes of fo fingular a phoenoa menon, it would be neceltary to confider, how far the courfe of this river may be afieéte'd by that of the Amazons, and to know the track and direétion both of the one and the other; From the di?'er ence'of their fituation, their fource, and their' Opening into the fea, it is not improbable, that the 'caufe of foaremarkablé a difference in the periods of their ?ux and re?ux might be difcovered; All things are Conneéted in this worldly fyl'tem. The courfes of rivers depend either on the diurnal or annual revolutions of the earth. Whenever an enlightened people, {hall acquire a knowledge of the banks of the Oronooko, 'they will difcover.
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