1. Northern Basin, or Arctic Ocean-Extends from the northern shores of Europe, Asia, America, and the astronomical line of the arctic circle, around the north pole. It is largely covered with compact ice in winter; and its higher latitudes have never been penetrated.

2. Western Basin, or Atlantic Ocean-Extends between America on the west; Europe and Africa on the east; the arctic and antarctic circles on the north and south; and is divided by the equator into the North and South Atlantic. It has the general form of a grand canal, upwards of 9000 miles in length, by from 900 to 5000 in breadth; and covers about 25,000,000 square miles. This is the best known section of the world of waters. All civilised nations are either seated directly upon its coast-line, or are proximate to it.

3. The Eastern Basin or Pacific Ocean-Enclosed between America on the east; Asia, the Sunda Isles, and Australia on the west; the polar circles on the north and south, being divided by the equator into the North and South Pacific. It extends upwards of 9000 miles from north to south, by 12,000 from east to west, following the line of the equator from Sumatra to Peru; and covers an area of 50,000,000 square miles. This vast expanse was not known to Europeans till the sixteenth century. Its waters were first seen in 1513 by Vasco Nunes de Balboa, from the top of a mountain on the Isthmus of Panama; and first navigated by Ferdinand Magellan in 1519, who originated the name from the favourable circumstances of the voyage.

4. The South-Eastern Basin, or Indian Ocean-Bounded by Africa on the west; Asia on the north; the Sunda Isles and Australia on the east ; and the antarctic circle on the south. It has an extreme extent of 6000 miles from north to south, by 5000 from east to west; and includes an area of 18,000,000 square miles. The first known voyage made by Europeans upon any portion of its surface occurred during the return of Alexander the Great from his Indian campaign.

5. Southern Basin, or Antarctic Ocean-Extends around the unexplored lands of the south polar region.

Each of these vast oceanic tracts is divided into lesser compartments, or seas-the denomination given to considerable collections of water penetrating inland. Thus, the Northern Basin has the White Sea, and the Sea of Kara. The Western Basin embraces the Baltic, North, Mediterranean, and Caribbean Seas. The Eastern Basin includes the Yellow Sea, and the Sea of Ohkotsk; and the South-eastern Basin has the Red, Arabian, and Bengal Seas. Still smaller collections of water running into the land are classed as gulfs or bays, as the Gulf of Bothnia, a branch of the Baltic. Where the passage which connects a collection of water nearly land-locked with the outlying ocean is narrow, it is called a Channel; and, when still narrower, a Strait; and a Sound, when it is shallow. As an example of this, we have the English Channel, the Straits of Dover, and the Sound connecting the Baltic and the North Sea.

The other great natural division of the surface is distributed chiefly into two immense spaces, to which the term continent is applied—a Latin derivative, signifying that which is connected. One of these, including Asia, Africa, and Europe, is known as the eastern, and the other, comprising America, as the western continent, because the one lies to the east, and the other to the west, of the meridian of the Feroe Isles, from which longitude was formerly reckoned. Those portions of the great tracts of land which have peculiar natural features are ranged in classes according to their contour. To a considerable projection from the mainland into the sea, so as to be nearly enclosed by it, and approaching almost to an island, as Italy, Spain, and the Morea, the term peninsula is applied. A narrow slip of land connecting two great masses, having the sea on its other sides, is called an isthmus, as the Isthmus of Suez, connecting Asia and Africa. The smaller projections of land into the sea are variously denominated capes, headlands, and promontories. These

are frequently imposing parts of coast scenery, presenting a bold and lofty front to the ocean, the whole aspect of which the eye can embrace, often wildly shattered by the billows of the deep. Europe terminates on the southeastern side with the ancient Promontory of Tænarum, the modern Cape Matapân, of which a distant view is here. given. This is the extreme point of the Greek peninsula to the south, where the range of Taygetus-whose summits are often wrapped in snow when the orange tree is in full bloom on the banks of the Eurotas-meets the sea. The two great continents present points of resemblance, and of strong dissimilarity. Both are nearly separated into two principal parts, a narrow isthmus of sand joining Africa and Asia, and an isthmus of rocks connecting North and South America. In both continents also most of the great peninsulas pursue the same direction, trending to the south; as South America, California, Florida, Alaska, and Greenland in the new world; and in the old, Scandinavia, Spain, Italy, Greece, Africa, Arabia, Hindustan, Malacca, and Kamtschatka;-a singular, but perhaps an entirely accidental circumstance. The western continent has one exception to this direction, that of the Peninsula of Yucatan in central America, and the eastern continent has another, that of the Peninsula of Jutland in Europe, both of which project northerly, and are composed of lowlands of alluvial soil. In the general direction of the superficies, in extent and configuration, the two continents greatly differ. The land in the new world stretches from north to south, while that of the old world proceeds from north-east to south-west, or, leaving Africa out of sight, its direction is nearly parallel to the equator. A line drawn from the west coast of Africa about Cape Verd to the north-east coast of Asia at Behring's Straits, describes the largest extent of land that can be compassed in the same direction on the eastern continent, being equal to about 11,000 miles; while a similar line drawn over the western continent from the

northern extremity of North America to Cape Horn will fall short of the former by an extent of about 2000 miles. Looking at the outline of the continents, we see the coast of the old world, excepting Africa, indented perpetually by considerable bays, gulfs, and inland seas, while the whole western and the south-eastern sides of the new world are remarkably smooth, and present no example of a great inland sea. A mutual adaptation appears in the configuration of the coast lines of the continents between which the Atlantic rolls; and, if joined together, the eastern projection of South America seems as though it would fit into the indentation of Central Africa, while the projection of Western Africa appears adapted to fill up the indentation of Central America. The impression naturally made by this peculiarity of outline is, that the two continents once formed an undivided territory, which some tremendous convulsion rent in twain, and put asunder.

Besides the great continents, there are smaller portions of land surrounded by water in their neighbourhood, or dispersed over the ocean. These are classed as islands, a group of which is called an archipelago, a word of doubtful origin, but first applied to the islands of the Ægean Sea, and perhaps a corruption of Egean connected with pelagus, the sea. The continents are in reality vast islands, and Australia, ranked as an island, is considered by some geographers, as entitled to be regarded a continent, on account of its extent. The Pacific Ocean has several large families of islands, to which distinct names have been given. Those nearest the Asian coast, extending to 10° south latitude and 130° east longitude, form one great division, styled the Indian Archipelago. Australia, New Zealand, the New Hebrides and adjacent islands, form another division, under the name of Australasia, or southern lands. The remaining islands east of the Philippines and New Zealand are classed together, forming the Polynesia of the English, and the Oceanica of the French. Those clusters of islands which are found in the vicinity of the main land have frequently all the appearance of having been once connected with it, and separated by some great inundation of the ocean which submerged the levels and slighter elevations. A great number of islands are simple accretions of sand deposited by the ocean in the course of ages. Others are coral formations, or the work of submarine volcanic action; while many are undoubtedly the summits of chains of mountains rooted in the mysterious bed of the deep, often in continuity with mountain chains on shore. There are some examples of small patches of rock, peeping above the surface of the ocean, at a considerable distance from the coast, which are evidently the peaks of independent submarine mountains. Rockall in the Atlantic is a specimen of this class, perhaps without a parallel in all its circumstances. It lies 290 miles away from the mainland of Scotland, 260 from the north coast of Ireland, and 184 from any other land, and is nothing but a block of granite, seventy feet high, and a hundred yards in circumference, apparently from a distance floating on the waves. There is scarcely another instance to be found in the wide realm of the ocean of an isle so small and so solitary.

group.

CHAPTER II.

HIGH LANDS OF THE EARTH.

N taking a rapid survey of the extraordinary lineaments that characterise the external appearance of the globe, and constitute its superficies, it is natural to commence with the surface diversities of the land regions, and with those that immediately arrest the eye, and powerfully interest the mind. These are the elevations. They appear under the various forms of gentle slopes, bold hills, and majestic eminences which tower above the clouds, and seem to claim a sovereign authority over the territory in which they are situate. The term mountain is used with a very equivocal meaning, being applied alike to single eminences and to an entire It denominates, also, in one country, elevations which in another district abounding with those of a superior class would be regarded as mere hillocks. It is impossible to avoid this indefinite nomenclature; but no confusion will arise in the particular application of the term, if reference is made to the general level of the adjoining surface. The slighter acclivities, whether crowned with grove and forest, whether planted with vegetable productions by the cultivating hand of man, or left to the natural grasses, form the most pleasing features of the soil; while the loftier projections of the superficies, stamped with an air of dignity, and indicating an upheaving power of irresistible might in their construction, present to the eye a thousand imposing combinations. Fringed with the dark green pine, and spotted with the lighter mosses with naked heads, as if in reverence of an invisible Superior-the mountains captivate while impressing the imagination. They are specimens of the fine arts of Nature, the gems of continents, wonderful examples of the diverse forms by which the ideas of Beauty, Majesty, and Power may be expressed.

The high lands occur in isolation, or in groups, ridges, and chains. Groups of mountains have sometimes the appearance of elevations radiating from a central point where the height is the greatest, forming a kind of circular cluster; but clusters of very irregular form occur without any principal eminence. The most general arrangement of mountains is in chains and ridges-a ridge being simply an inferior chain. To this class those elevations belong which are so distributed as to form a kind of zone or band, the breadth bearing little proportion to the length; and whatever direction the zone may take, and whatever shape it may assume that of a straight line, an angle, or a curve-it is said to constitute a chain. The term is not meant to signify an unbroken series of projections, answering to the appearance of a street in which the buildings, though diversified, are attached, but a series of parts, in many cases distinct, yet lying in the same general direction. Many chains consist of one grand central range, accompanied by two subordinate ranges of inferior elevation, one on each side, at a diverging distance from the main body, and sometimes closing up with it. Smaller chains frequently branch off from the main ridge in an angular direction, as the Apennines from the Alps, and minor branches shoot out from these, which are called spurs when their course is short. The highest points of a great chain are usually about the middle, as the peaks of the Alps, the Himalaya, and the Andes; and the most elevated parts of a branch from the main ridge are at

the points of junction with the parent stem. The first-class chains have almost uniformly an abrupt descent on one side, and a gentler declivity on the other. This is the case with the Andes, the Alps, the Pyrenees, the mountains of Scandinavia, and the Ghauts of India. It was held by Berghaus that the western side of chains extending north and south is most abrupt, while it is the southern side that is so in the case of those running east and west. But the exceptions to this are numerous, and no general rule upon the point can be advanced, beyond one which applies to chains near the coast, which have their steepest sides fronting the ocean. Taurus, Atlas, and Lebanon present their most precipitous and craggy faces to the Mediterranean, and the Andes likewise to the Pacific. The great chains in general follow the direction in which the land of the continents where they are situated has its greatest extent. Thus the ranges, which, with only a few breaks, stretch from the south-west coast of Europe to the north-east coast of Asia, traverse the old world in the line of its maximum longitude; and the Andes of South America, continued by the Rocky Mountains of the North, travel through the new world in the direction of its greatest length. The course of subordinate chains, also, as of the Apennines in Italy, the Dofrefeld in Norway and Sweden, and the Ghauts in Hindustan, corresponds with the general direction of these peninsulas.

The length of the principal chains has been computed as follows:

The insulated mountains, or those which are apart from any group or chain, are not