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CHAPTER. i. 
INTRODUCTION. 
OUR world may well nigh be called a world of waters, for on 
the surface of our planet water is the rule and land the exception. 
No apology, then, is needed for describing the plants and animals 
which pass their existence in an element covering two-thirds of the 
globe, an element whose presence confines man, though he boast 
of his lordship over creation, to a third of his domain. Speaking 
more accurately, the waters stretch themselves over an area of 
145,500,000 square miles, whilst the land which rises above their 
level occupies the remaining 51,500,000—or, to reduce the un- 
wieldy numbers to something comprehensible, if the surface of 
our globe were divided into 1,000 parts, 266 would be land and 
734 water, 
This vast extent of watery area is divided by geographers into 
five oceans—the Arctic, Atlantic, Indian, Pacific, and Antarctic, 
The Arctic extends from the North Pole as far south as the Arctic 
Circle. Its waters freeze upon the northern shores of three con- 
tinents, Europe, Asia, and America. 
The Atlantic separates the Old and New Worlds. Its northern 
and southern boundaries are the Arctic and Antarctic Circles, 
while the Americas on the one side, and Europe and Africa on 
the other, form its lateral shores. It is the most important of 
the oceans. Through it pass the great highways of the sea. Its 
waters are not lifeless, dreary wastes, but thousands of mariners 
people its surface, and sails of every nation enliven its bosom. 
The South Atlantic also is famous for the birth-place of the 
tidal wave, a wave which sweeps round the world, disturbing 
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