ARCHIPELAGO, a term (of doubtful etymology) applied originally to that gulf of the Mediterranean which separates Greece from Asia; but now extended to any sea, like it, thickly interspersed with islands, or rather to the group of islands themselves. The islands in the Greek archipelago or tEgean sea consist of two groups, called Cyclades and Sporades; the first from their being massed after the manner of a circle, the second from their being scattered in something of a line. The former lie to the east of southern Greece, while the latter skirt the w. of Asia Minor.
Of the Cyclades the principal islands are: Lyra, Kythnos, Thera, Tenos, Andros, Naxos, Melos, and many more of inferior size. They all belong to Greece, and will more conveniently be considered in connection with it. The chief islands of the Spor ades are: Scarpanto, Rhodes, Cos, Patmos, Nicaria, Samos, Scio, Metelin, Lemnos, Inibros, Samothraki, Thasos, and many more of inferior size. These all belong to Turkey, and constitute a separate vilayet of the empire. Of both groups, the more con siderable islands will be noticed, under the alphabetical arrangement, in their respective places.
The other archipelagoes, loosely so called, will receive separate notice each in proper place.
A remarkable circumstance may be mentioned in connection with archipelagoes. The islands of the globe rarely stand alone. With very few exceptions, they may all be classified into clusters. In most clusters, again, there is generally more or less of simili tude between the different members of each—similitude sometimes of one kind, and some times of another. Perhaps the similitude that is most obvious even on the face of an ordinary map, is that, really like the links of a chain, the members of a cluster have their lengths, as distinguished from their breadths, in one and the same direction, In the West Indies, for instance, look at the Bahamas, and look also at the Antilles, Greater and Lesser. In the East Indies, again, the same thing is seen in carrying the eye from the n. end of the Philippines to the n. end of Sumatra, or even of the Anda mans. Lastly, on the opposite coasts of the upper Pacific, observe the American side upWards from the s. end of Vancouver's island to Mt. St. Elias, and the Asiatic side downwards from the upper extremity of Kamtchatka—which is all but an island— through the Kuriles, to the lower extremity of Japan.