972 



OCEANICA, OR OCEANIA. 



separating it from America ; on the south by the Pacific, and on the west by the Indian Ocean. 

 It forms tlie fifth great division of the globe ; the land area amounts to about 4,600,000 square 

 miles, and its population is variously estimated on very insufficient data, at from 15,000,000 to 

 20,000,000 souls. Oceania may be divided into 3 great divisions ; Malaysia, or the East In- 

 dian Archipelago, comprising the northwestern islands, from New Guinea to the Strahs of Ma- 

 lacca ; Australia, comprising New Holland and the adjacent islands, and Polynesia, including 

 all those numberless groups of small islands, that are scattered over the Pacific Ocean. Some 

 geographers consider Malaysia as a part of the Asiatic continent, and extend the name of 

 Australia to the rest of Oceania. 



2. JWountains. Many of the islands contain lofty mounlain chains, but the interior of most 



of the larger islands is wholly un- 

 known to us. The highest known 

 summits are those of Hawai, in the 

 Sandwich Islands, where Mouna 

 Roa reaches the height of nearly 

 16,000 feet. Several mountains in 

 Sumatra, Java, the Philippines, and 

 New Guinea, are little inferior, but 

 the great islands of New Holland 

 and Borneo contain no known eleva- 

 tions approaching to these. 



3. Volcanoes. No part of the 

 world presents so great a number of 

 volcanoes ; Java contains 15, Su- 

 matra 5, Luconia 4, Mindanao, 

 Mindoro, Sumbava, and Timor, 

 each several. New Zealand, the 

 Sandwich Islands, the Friendly 

 Islands, &c., have one or more. 

 Some islands are nothing but vol- 

 canic craters, vomiting forth fire 

 from the midst of the waters. The 

 eruptions of some of these, even in 

 our own times, have altered the very 

 face of the land in which they ex- 

 ist, and have been accompanied by 

 a vast destruction of life and prop- 

 erty. Some islands contain only 

 extinct volcanoes, and the peculiar 

 formation of the coral islands, de- 

 scribed below, show the operation 

 of volcanic action upon them. In 

 Shouten's islands, near New Guinea, 

 the flames and sr/ioke rise calmly 

 over a fruitful and smiling country ; 

 in other islands, dreadful torrents of 

 black lava darken the shores. The 

 volcano of Gilolo broke out in 1673 

 with a violence which made the 

 whole of the Moluccas shake. The 

 ashes were carried as far as Magin- 

 danao, and the scoria and the pum- 

 ice stones, floating on the sea, seem- 

 ed to retard the progress of the 

 vessels. 



Comparative Height of the Mountains of Oceania. 

 Australian. 



1. Celebes, 



2. Bornean, . 



3. Moluccas 



4. Philippine, 



5. Java, 



7,680 feet. 

 8,000 " 

 3,C64 " 

 10,540 " 

 12,800 " 



Malaysian. 



6. Sumatra, . \a,Vi') " 



7. Blue Mountain, C,500 feet. 



8. Swan River, " 10,000 " 



Polynesian. 



9. Orcena, (Tahiti,) 10,910 " 



0. Mouna Koa Hawai, 13,950 " 



1. Mouna Roa, " 15,090 '• 



4. Coral Islands. These seas are covered in different directions with small, low islands 

 and reefs, which are entirely of coral formation. Many of them are inhabited and covered 

 with groves of cocoa nut and other trees, while others are quite destitute of trees, and without 



