THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 227 
ed the cliffs to the shore of the Ocean, he bathed 
in its mighty waters, taking possession of it by the 
name of the Great South Sea, on behalf of the King 
of Spain. This was in the year 1513; but it was 
not till seven years afterwards that its surface was 
ruffled by a European keel. Then Magalhaens or 
Magellan, a Portuguese navigator of great ability, 
in the service of Spain, having run down the coast 
of South America, discovered the straits which have 
since borne his name, through which he sailed, and 
emerging from them on the 28th November, 1520, 
first launched out upon the broad bosom of the 
South Sea. For three months and twenty days he 
sailed across it, during which long period its surface 
was never ruffled by a storm; and from this circum- 
stance he gave to the Ocean the appellation of the 
Pacific, which it still retains. The immediate vici- 
nity of the Straits, however, has been considered 
peculiarly subject to tempests; while the almost con- 
tinual prevalence of westerly winds, joined to the 
severity of the climate, has always given a character 
of difficulty and hazard to the passage from the one 
Ocean to the other. 
In approaching the extreme point of South Ame- 
rica, navigators have been struck with the extraor- 
dinary size of a floating sea-weed, the Macrocystes 
pyrifera of botanists. It consists of a smooth round 
stem, commonly from 500 to 1000 feet in length: 
Foster mentions one which was 800 feet, and some 
specimens are reported even to attain the enormous 
dimensions of 1500 feet. From the stem grow a 
great number of pear-shaped air-vessels, which end 
