THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 227 



ed the cliffs to the shore of the Ocean, he bathed 

 in its mighty waters, taking possession of it by the 

 name of the Great South Sea, on behalf of the King 

 of Spain. This was in the year 1513 ; bat it was 

 not till seven years afterwards that its surface was 

 ruffled by a European keel. Then Magalhaens or 

 Magellan, a Portuguese navigator of great ability, 

 in the service of Spain, having run down the coast 

 of South America, discovered the straits which have 

 since borne his name, through which he sailed, and 

 emerging from them on the 28th November, 1520, 

 first launched out upon the broad bosom of the 

 South Sea. For three months and twenty days he 

 sailed across it, during which long period its surface 

 was never ruffled by a storm ; and from this circum- 

 stance he gave to the Ocean the appellation of the 

 Pacific, which it still retains. The immediate vici- 

 nity of the Straits, however, has been considered 

 peculiarly subject to tempests ; while the almost con- 

 tinual prevalence of westerly winds, joined to the 

 severity of the climate, has always given a character 

 of difficulty and hazard to the passage from the one 

 Ocean to the other. 



In approaching the extreme point of South Ame- 

 rica, navigators have been struck with the extraor- 

 dinary size of a floating sea-weed, the Microcystes 

 pyrifera of botanists. It consists of a smooth round 

 stem, commonly from 500 to 1000 feet in length: 

 Foster mentions one which was 800 feet, and some 

 specimens are reported even to attain the enormous 

 dimensions of 1500 feet. From the stem grow a 

 great number of pear-shaped air-vessels, which end 



