MALAYSIA AND THE PACIFIC ARCHIPELAGOES 



2. Extent and Distribution of Lands and Islands. 



That portion of the equator stretching from Singa- 

 pore across the Pacific to Guayaquil occupies ahnost 

 exactly 180" of longitude, or half the circumference of 

 the globe, and throughout almost the whole of this vast 

 distance it traverses blue water. This boundless watery 

 domain, which extends northward to Bering Straits, and 

 southward to the Antarctic barrier of ice, is studded with 

 many island groups, which are, nevertheless, very irregu- 

 larly distributed over its surface. Its northern portion 

 is almost unbroken ocean. Between latitude 30° N. and 

 30° S., reefs, islets, and groups of coral formation abound, 

 and towards the southern limit of this belt larger islands 

 appear. To the west and south are the great islands of 

 the Malay Archipelago and Australia. In the central 

 Pacific, islands almost wholly cease at the 30th parallel 

 of south latitude. Again, in its eastern part, scarcely a 

 single island is to be found until a few occur near the 

 American coast. It thus appears that all the greater 

 land masses of Australasia form an obvious southern and 

 south-eastern extension of the great Asiatic continent, 

 while beyond, the islands rapidly diminish in size and 

 number till, in the far east and north, we reach a vast 

 expanse of unbroken ocean. 



In actual land area this division of the globe is not 

 much larger than Europe, but if we take into account 

 the amount of space it occupies upon the globe, and the 

 position of its extreme points, it at once rises to the first 

 rank, surpassing even the vast extent of the Asiatic 

 continent. From the north-western extremity of Suma- 

 tra, in 95° E. long., to the Marquesas in 138° Wi, is 

 a distance of 127 degrees, or more than one-third of the 



