GEEAT NATURAL DIVISIONS OF THE EARTH. 197 



1 . Northern Basin, or Arctic Ocean Extends from the northern shores of Europe, Asia, 

 America, and the astronomical line of the arctic circle, around the north pole. It is largely 

 covered with compact ice in winter ; and its higher latitudes have never been penetrated. 



2. Western Basin, or Atlantic Ocean Extends between America on the west; Europe 

 and Africa on the east ; the arctic and antarctic circles on the north and south ; and is 

 divided by the equator into the North and South Atlantic. It has the general form of a 

 grand canal, upwards of 9000 miles in length, by from 900 to 5000 in breadth ; and 

 covers about 25,000,000 square miles. This is the best known section of the world of 

 waters. All civilised nations are either seated directly upon its coast-line, or are proximate 

 to it. 



3. The Eastern Basin or Pacific Ocean Enclosed between America on the east ; Asia, 

 the Sunda Isles, and Australia on the west ; the polar circles on the north and south, being 

 divided by the equator into the North and South Pacific. It extends upwards of 9000 

 miles from north to south, by 12,000 from east to west, following the line of the equator 

 from Sumatra to Peru ; and covers an area of 50,000,000 square miles. This vast expanse 

 was not known to Europeans till the sixteenth century. Its waters were first seen in 1513 

 by Vasco Nunes de Balboa, from the top of a mountain on the Isthmus of Panama ; and first 

 navigated by Ferdinand Magellan in 1519, who originated the name from the favourable 

 circumstances of the voyage. 



4. The South-Eastern Basin, or Indian Ocean Bounded by Africa on the west ; Asia 

 on the north ; the Sunda Isles and Australia on the east ; and the antarctic circle on the 

 south. It has an extreme extent of 6000 miles from north to south, by 5000 from east to 

 west ; and includes an area of 18,000,000 square miles. The first known voyage made by 

 Europeans upon any portion of its surface occurred during the return of Alexander the 

 Great from his Indian campaign. 



5. Soiithern Basin, or Antarctic Ocean Extends around the unexplored lands of the 

 south polar region. 



Each of these vast oceanic tracts is divided into lesser compartments, or seas the 

 denomination given to considerable collections of water penetrating inland. Thus, the 

 Northern Basin has the White Sea, and the Sea of Kara. The Western Basin embraces 

 the Baltic, North, Mediterranean, and Caribbean Seas. The Eastern Basin includes the 

 Yellow Sea, and the Sea of Ohkotsk ; and the South-eastern Basin has the Bed, Arabian, 

 and Bengal Seas. Still smaller collections of water running into the land are classed as 

 gulfs or bays, as the Gulf of Bothnia, a branch of the Baltic. Where the passage which 

 connects a collection of water nearly land-locked with the outlying ocean is narrow, it is 

 called a Channel ; and, when still narrower, a Strait ; and a Sound, when it is shallow. 

 As an example of this, we have the English Channel, the Straits of Dover, and the Sound 

 connecting the Baltic and the North Sea. 



The other great natural division of the surface is distributed chiefly into two im 

 mense spaces, to which the term continent is applied a Latin derivative, signifying that 

 which is connected. One of these, including Asia, Africa, and Europe, is known as the 

 eastern, and the other, comprising America, as the western continent, because the one lies to 

 the east, and the other to the west, of the meridian of the Feroe Isles, from which longitude 

 was formerly reckoned. Those portions of the great tracts of land which have peculiar 

 natural features are ranged in classes according to their contour. To a considerable pro 

 jection from the mainland into the sea, so as to be nearly enclosed by it, and approaching 

 almost to an island, as Italy, Spain, and the Morea, the term peninsula is applied. A narrow 

 slip of land connecting two great masses, having the sea on its other sides, is called an 

 isthmus, as the Isthmus of Suez, connecting Asia and Africa. The smaller projections of 

 land into the sea are variously denominated capes, headlands, and promontories. These 



