THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
CONTINUED, 
A REMARKABLE 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 thou- 
sand miles in length, and fifteen hundred in breadth, 
is so studded with them as almost to be one con- 
tinuous 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 distinct 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. 
Z (265) 
