Apams.—Polynesia. 47 
counter current, and near the coast of America forms the Mentor’s Drift. 
This is the southern circuit of ocean currents. The Rossell’s Drift, which 
branches N.E. near Fiji, flows by New Caledonia and the New Hebrides, 
and the islands of Santa Cruz and others, called inclusively, Melanesia. It 
continues its north-west course, even against the monsoon which blows 
from May to September, and flows through Torres Straits and to the west 
of New Guinea, when it meets the West Australian current; and further 
north still, a part of the South Equatorial, which branches off north of the 
Samoan Group. These united streams turn east near the Pelew Isles, and 
flowing south of the Caroline Group, form the equatorial counter current, 
which constantly flows east, between the northern and southern circuit 
currents, at rates varying from three to thirty-eight miles a day. 
The ocean currents seem to form six principal divisions of islands. 
These are, Polynesia, in the South Equatorial ; Melanesia, in Rossell’s ; 
the Papuan Group, between the latter the West Australian and the South 
Equatorial; the Gilbert and Ellice islands, which lie between the South 
Equatorial and the counter current; the Caroline, Marshall, and Ladrone 
islands, also called inclusively, Micronesia, lie between the North Equatorial 
and the equatorial counter current ; and lastly the Sandwich Group, which 
is almost the only land in the northern circuit, not quite 6,000 square 
miles of land in an area of more than 11,000,000 square miles. The entire 
six divisions do not contain more than a quarter of a million square miles 
of land, of which Papua alone contains more than 200,000 square miles, 
and these are scattered over an area of more than 30,000,000 square miles. 
Widely as these islands are separated from each other, the whole six divi- 
sions seem to be inhabited by the same race. A common bond of language 
unites them, for the names of numerals, of the human limbs, and other 
common objects, are for the most part identical. 
The Papuans are shown by Mr. Wallace to be quite a contrast to the 
Malays, from whom they are separated by a narrow strait ; and to resemble 
the Maori in language, disposition, and mode of life. Cook and other early 
voyagers were struck with the resemblance of the Sandwich Islander to the 
Tahitian ; and the Rowditch Islanders to the north of Samoa, who did not 
know of any other people, when visited by the American expedition in 1840, 
nevertheless spoke very good Maori. 
' A study of the prevailing winds and ocean currents aecounts for the 
mild climate of Alaska, compared with that of Greenland in the same 
latitude. It explains the cause of the extreme eold on the western shores 
of Patagonia, and the constant rain on the coast of Southern Chile, as well 
as on that of British America. 
The cold Arctic current in the sea of Japan accounts for the excellent 
