4 
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
circumference of the globe, and about 1000 miles longer 
than the greatest extent of Europe and Asia from Lisbon 
to Singapore. In a north and south direction it is less 
extensive; yet, from the Sandwich Islands in 22° N. to 
Stewart Island, New Zealand, in 47° S., is a meridian 
distance of 69 degrees, or as much as the width of the 
great northern continent from the North Cape to Ceylon. 
From the usual custom of representing the Eastern 
Archipelago within the limits of a single map, its vast 
size and extent are generally lost sight of. 
3. Geographical and Physical Features. 
Within the limits above described are some of the 
most interesting countries of the world. Beginning at 
the west, we have the Malay Archipelago, comprising the 
largest islands on the globe, and unsurpassed for the 
luxuriance of its vegetation as well as for the variety 
and beauty of its forms of animal life. Farther to the 
east lie the countless islands of the Pacific, remarkable 
for their numbers and their beauty, and interesting from 
their association with the names of many of our greatest 
navigators. To the south is Australia, unique in its 
physical features; and still farther in the Southern 
Ocean lies New Zealand, almost the antipodes of Great 
Britain, but possessing a milder climate and a more 
varied surface. 
Being thus almost wholly comprised between the 
northern tropic and the 40th degree of south latitude, 
this division of the globe possesses as tropical a character 
as Africa, while, owing to its being so completely oceanic 
and extending over so vast an area, it presents diversities 
of physical features and of organic life not to be found 
