Note 203 — Chapter VIII
Reading edition
In this estimate, the space within the antarctic circle is not taken into account: if included, it would probably add to the excess of dry land; for the late discoveries of Capt. Sir James Ross, who penetrated to lat. 78° 10' S., confirm the conjecture of Captain Cook that the accumulation of antarctic ice implies the presence of a certain quantity of terra firma. The number of square miles on the surface of the globe are 148,522,000, the part occupied by the sea being 110,849,000, and that by land, 37,673,000; so that the land is very nearly to the sea as 1 part in 4. I am informed by Mr. Gardner that, according to a rough approximation, the land between the 30° N. lat. and the pole occupies a space about equal to that of the sea, and the land between the 30° S. lat. and the antarctic circle about one-sixteenth of that zone.