This vast region is situated between the fifteenth and tenth degrees of north
latitude; that is to say, that, in order to approach it, the explorer must penetrate fifteen hundred miles into the interior of Africa.
But not so did it seem to Ahab, who knew the sets of all tides and currents; and thereby calculating the driftings of the sperm whale's food; and, also, calling to mind the regular, ascertained seasons for hunting him in particular
latitudes; could arrive at reasonable surmises, almost approaching to certainties, concerning the timeliest day to be upon this or that ground in search of his prey.
Now, by good fortune, certain frontiers of the United States extend downward as far as the 28th parallel of the north
latitude. If you will cast your eye over this map, you will see that we have at our disposal the whole of the southern portion of Texas and Florida."
From 67@ 30' to 90@, twenty-two degrees and a half of
latitude remained to travel; that is, about five hundred leagues.
Hence we may suppose that the organisms now living under the climate of
latitude 60 deg, during the Pliocene period lived further north under the Polar Circle, in
latitude 66 deg-67 deg; and that the strictly arctic productions then lived on the broken land still nearer to the pole.
Upper California extends from
latitude 31 10' to 42 on the Pacific, and inland, to the great chain of snow-capped mountains which divide it from the sand plains of the interior.
At the time that the projectile was as high as the tenth parallel, north
latitude, it seemed rigidly to follow the twentieth degree, east longitude.
It could hardly have been a change of temperature, which at about the same time destroyed the inhabitants of tropical, temperate, and arctic
latitudes on both sides of the globe.
We have already reached a very high
latitude; but it is the height of summer, and although not so warm as in England, the southern gales, which blow us speedily towards those shores which I so ardently desire to attain, breathe a degree of renovating warmth which I had not expected.
For a true expression of dishevelled wildness there is nothing like a gale in the bright moonlight of a high
latitude.
I have not got the ship's journal to refer to, and I cannot now call to mind the
latitude and longitude.
The limits, as fixed by the treaty of peace, are: on the east the Atlantic, on the south the
latitude of thirty-one degrees, on the west the Mississippi, and on the north an irregular line running in some instances beyond the forty-fifth degree, in others falling as low as the forty-second.