GEOGRAPHY. 407 
inland fea, but the river Amazon and that of La Plata 
are celebrated as the largefl: in the world. They both 
have their rife among the Andes. 
The mountains of South America are the loftieft on 
the whole furface of the globe, and are intermixed with 
volcanos of the mod fublime and terrific defcription. 
The Andes f dlow the windings of tite coaft, and ex¬ 
tend ftfiir ihoufand fix hundred miles. The higheil 
are four miles liigh, and are covered with perpetual fnow. 
The Spanifli dominions in South America are Buenos 
Ayres, (taken by the Englirti in 1806,) Peru, Chili, and 
New Grenada. Peru and Chili are famous for their gold 
and filver mines. In Chili it never rains, the iky is feldom 
cloudy, but the dews of night fupply the want of rain. 
The Portuguefe territory of Brazil is perhaps equal 
in extent to the Spanifit, compenfating by its breadth 
for its deficiency in length. Guiana belongs partly to 
the French, and partly to the Dutch. Cayenne confifts 
of a confiderable territory on the continent, and of an 
ifland of the fame name. 
The fouthern extremity of South America is Patago¬ 
nia, a defolate country inhabited by favage Indians, 
fome of whom are of great llature. 
The iflands contiguous to South America are Trini¬ 
dad, the Falkland illands, Terra del Fuego, Chiioe, 
and Juan Fernandez. The Gallipago illands are near 
the equator, and the Pearl illands lie in the bay of Pa¬ 
nama.—See the article America, and the correfpond- 
ing Map, vol. i. p. 435. 
AUSTRALASIA. 
The divifion of the world called Auftralalia, con¬ 
tains the following illands ; r. New Holland or Notalia, 
and all tlie illands between twenty degrees well, and 
between twenty and thirty degrees eall, of it. New 
Holland is about three-fourths as large as Europe. 3. 
Papue or New Guinea, and the Papuan illes. 3. New 
Britain, New Irel-md, and the Solomon illes. 4, New 
Caledonia, and the New Hebrides. 5. New Zealand. 
6. Van Dieman’s Land, which is feparated from New 
Holland by BalTe’s Strait or channel, and is about thirty 
leagues wide. 
POLYNESIA. 
The divifion of the earth called Polynefia, confills of 
I. The Pelew iilands. z. The Ladrone or Marian illands, 
the principal of which are GuanandTinian. 3.TheCaro- 
lines, the largefl: of which are Hogolenand Yap. 4. The 
Sandwich iflands, difeovered by captain Cook ; at one 
of which, Owhyhee, he loft his life. 5. The Marquefas, 
■which are very numerous. 6. The Society iflands are 
about fixty or feventy in number j Otaheite is the 
largefl. 7. The Friendly iflatids and the Fejee iflands. 
8. The Navigator’s iflands, the principal of which is 
Maouna. Tiie largefl ifland in Polynelia is Owhyhee, 
about one hundred miles in length.—See particulars of 
thefe iflands under their refpec'tive titles in this Ency¬ 
clopaedia. 
Of the SEAS and COASTS of the KNOWN 
WORLD. 
Recent difeoveries have evinced, that more than 
two-thirds of this globe are covered with water; and 
thefe waters, whether oceans, feas, lakes, or rivers, 
are contained in hollow fpaces, more or lefs large, 
which the modern French geographers have ftyled baf~ 
fins. They may perhaps with more propriety be called 
concavities-, while, on the other hand, the chief conorv- 
itks or protuberances of the globe, by the French ftyled 
plateaux, confift of uplands, hills, and mountains. Long 
chains of mountai-ns commonly proceed from thofe chief 
convexities, branching off in various diredlions; and 
from thefe the principal rivers of the world proceed, 
or have their fource. 
The grandeft concavity of this globe is filled by the 
Pacific Ocean, occupying nearly half of its furface, from 
the eaftern Ibores of New Holland to the weftern coaft 
of America; and diverfified with fevevai groups of 
iflands, which feem as it were the funimits of vaft 
mountains emerging from the waves. This chief con¬ 
cavity, feparately confidered, receives but few rivers, 
the chief being the Amur From Tartary, and the Hoan- 
Ho, and Kian-Ku, From China; while the principal 
rivers of America run tow-ards the taft. 
The next grand concavity is that of the Atlantic 
Ocean, between the ancien'^ continent and the new. A 
third is the Indian Ocean. 1 he teas between the aiLlic 
and antarctic circles and the poles, are ftyled the Ardtic 
and Antardtic Oceans; the latter having fupplanted 
the Terra Auftralis, and being in fact only a continua¬ 
tion of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian, Oceans; while 
the Arftic Sea is partly embraced by continents, and 
receives many important rivers. Such are the principal 
concavities of the globe, while others are filled by more 
fubordinate leas, as the Mediterranean, tbic Baltic, and 
others of yet fmaller extent, till we defeend to the in¬ 
land lakes, and frelh-water ftreams. 
Out ol this vaft expanfe of oceanic waters, arifes in 
the ancient hemifphere, that wide continent, which 
contains Afia, Europe, and Africa; and in the modern 
hemilphere or New World, the continent of America, 
now difeovered to be divided by a llrait only of the 
fea from the ancient continent. 
However prevalent it may have been to fpeak of the 
Atlantic Ocean generally, as comprehending the fea or 
ocean between the weftern coafts of Europe and Africa 
as its eajlern limit, and the eaftern coafts of North and 
South America as its wejlcrn limit; we feel a pleafure 
in Hating that it is now a rule in modern geography to 
diftinguilh thefe into the North Atlantic Ocean on the 
north fide ot the equator, and the South Atlantic Ocean 
on its fouth fide. This laft has been fometimes cal¬ 
led the Ethiopic or Southern ocean, but we are inclined 
to favour the diftinftion of South Atlantic. Thefe dif- 
tinflions form an additional means of impreffing upon 
the mind the true fituation of any coaft or particular 
place in either ocean, lb as to point out more readily or 
communicate more forcibly the idea of their being in¬ 
north or fouth latitude. To the Pacific Ocean, the 
fame obfervations are equally applicable; and the dil- 
tindlion between the Nortli and South Pacific Oceans is 
as neceflary and'important as in the Atlantic.—See the 
Map of the World, on Mercator’s Projection, here¬ 
unto annexed. 
In like mdnner, it may be obferved-, of tlie ocean to 
the eaftward of the Cape of Good Hope, that it is fre¬ 
quently known by the general name of the Indian Ocean, 
from that point of Africa to tiie fouth-weft point of the 
extenfive ifland of New Holland, which latter is not 
three degrees more to the fouth than the former. The 
fmall illands of Amfterdam and St. Paul, are only 
about a degree to the fouthward of the fairway, be¬ 
tween thele two points, and one of them not quite fo 
much, and but a few degrees to the weftward of the 
middle cliftance. Yet the Arabian Sea, which wallies 
the fouth coaft of Arabia, between the Straits of Babel- 
mandel and the weftern coaft of India, has been deferib- 
ed in many works under the general name of the Indian 
Ocean. It will alfo occur in many books of geography, 
that iflands, ports, or places, which are lituated to the 
eaftward of Sunda and Malacca Straits, as far as to En¬ 
deavour Straits between the north point of New Hol¬ 
land and the fouth coaft of New Guinea, are deferibed 
as lying in the eaftern Indian ocean, in that traft of lea 
or ocean which has commonly been known by the name 
of the Dutch Eall Indies. This is ufually confined to 
about ten degrees to the fouthward of the equator, and 
to nearly as much on the north, excepting to the north- 
eaft along the continent from the ftraits of Malacca, 
which is known by the name of the Chinefe Sea. 
It is almolt needlefs to mention that tlie ocean, fup- 
pofed 10 be near the Nj?rth Pole, is fometimes called the. 
North. 
