PACIFIC OCEAN, the largest of the five great oceans, lying between America on the E., and Asia, Malaysia, and Aus tralasia on the W. The name "Pacific," was given to it by Magellan, the first European navigator who traversed its expanse. The greatest length of the Pacific Ocean from the Arctic (at Bering Strait) to the Antarctic circles is 9,200 miles, and its greatest width, along the parallel of lat. 5° N., about 10,300 miles; while its area may be roughly estimated at about two-fifths of the whole surface of the earth. The deepest sounding yet found in the Pacific Ocean is 26,850 feet, or about 5 miles—nearly equal to the height of the highest mountain on the globe. The coasts of the Pacific Ocean present a general resemblance to those of the Atlantic, and the similarity in the outline of the W. coasts of each is even striking, especially N. of the equator; but the shores of the former, unlike those of the latter, are sinuous, and, excepting the N. E. coast of Asia, little indented with inlets. The shore on the American side is bold _nd rocky, while that of Asia varies much in char acter. Though the Pacific Ocean is by far the largest of the five great oceans the proportion of land drained into it is comparatively insignificant. Its basin includes only the narrow strip of the American continent to the W, of the Andes and Rocky Mountains; Melanesia, which contains few rivers, and none of them of large size; the Indo-Chinese States, China proper, with the E. part of Mongolia, and Manchuria in the Asiatic continent.
In Polynesia, especially near the New Hebrides group, hurricanes are of fre quent occurrence from November to April. On the coast of Patagonia, and at Cape Horn, W. winds prevail during the greater part of the year, while in the sea of Okhotsk they are of rare oc currence. The frightful typhoon is the terror of mariners in the Chinese seas, and may occur at all seasons of the year. The currents of the Pacific Ocean, though less marked in character and ef fects than those of the Atlantic, are yet of sufficient importance to require a brief notice. The southern Pacific cur rent takes its rise S. of Van Dieman's Land, and flows E. at the rate of half a mile per hour, dividing into two branches about lon. 98° W., the N. branch, or Cur rent of Mentor, turning N. and grad ually losing itself in the counter Equa torial Current; the S. branch continuing its E. course till it is subdivided by the opposition of Cape Horn into two branches, one of which, the cold Current of Peru, or Humboldt's Current, ad vances N. along the W. coast of South America, becoming finally absorbed in the Equatorial Current; the other wash ing the coast of Brazil, and becoming an Atlantic current. The existence of this ocean first became known to Europeans through Columbus, who had received ac counts of it from some of the natives of America, though it was first seen by Balboa, Sept. 29, 1513, and first trav ersed by Magellan eight years after ward.