2 AUSTRALASIA. 



great oceanic depression covers about one half of the surface of the earth.* South 

 of the three continental extremities — Cape Horn, Cape of Good Hope, and 

 Tasmania — the belt of waters stretches uninterruptedly in a circuit of 15,000 to 

 16,000 miles. Moreover, the marine depression extends far to the north beyond 

 the equator, developing to the east of Africa the vast basin of the Indian Ocean, 

 and east of Australia and Asia the still more extensive basin of the Pacific Ocean. 

 If the continental masses, taken collectively, be compared to a half crater, whose 

 contour, beginning at the Cape of Good Hope and terminating at Cape Horn, 

 comprises the Ethiopian highlands, the Himalayas, and the Andes, the " Great 



Fig. 1. — The Geeat Oceanic Hemisphere (Western Section). 



Ocean," as Fleurieu calls the united Indian and Pacific waters, will be found to 

 completely flood this immense semicircle. The total sweep of this semicircle of inner 

 shores exceeds 24,000 miles, that is to say, the length of the terrestrial circum- 

 ference at the equator. Edward Suess has brought into hill relief the striking 

 contrast presented by the Atlantic and Pacific,. the former presenting no lofty 

 coast range round its periphery, while the latter washes with its abysmal waters 

 the very foot of the encircling escarpments. But is this writer not mistaken in 



* Total oceanic area, according to Kriimmel 

 Great ocean, with Atlantic and Arctic Seaa 

 Ai'ea of dry lands .... 



148,000,000 square miles. 

 112,000,000 

 57,000,000 ,, ., 



