THE FACIFIC OCFAN. 



CONTINUED. 



A REM AEK ABLE feature in the Pacific Ocean, and one 

 that distinguishes it from every other sea, is the 

 immense assemblage of small islands with which it 

 is crowded, particularly in the portion situated 

 between the tropics. For about three thousand miles 

 from the coast of South America, the sea is almost 

 entirely free from islands ; but thence to the great 

 isles of India, an immense belt of Ocean, nearly five 

 thousand miles in length, and fifteen hundred in 

 breadth, is so studded with them as almost to be one 

 continuous archipelago. The term Polynesia, by 

 which this division of the globe is now distinguished, 

 is compounded of two Greek words, signifying many 

 islands. Very few of these gems of the Ocean are 

 more than a few miles in extent, though Tahiti, and 

 some in the more western groups, are of rather larger 

 dimensions ; while Hawaii, the largest island in 

 Polynesia, is about the size of Yorkshire. 



The isles, which in such vast numbers thus stud 

 the bosom of the Pacific, are of three di.stinct forms, 

 the Coral, the Crystal, and the Volcanic. Of these, 

 the first formation greatly predominates ; but the 

 largest islands are of the last description ; of the 

 crystal formation but few specimens are known. 



