PACIFIC OCEAN, THE, extends between America on the east, and Asia and Australia on the west. It received this name from 3Iagalhaens, the first European who traversed it, and who, having experienced bad weather and heavy gales in the Strait of Magelhaons, nailed into the wide expanse of this ocean with a moderate south.east trade-wind, and enjoyed fair weather without interruption. He accord ingly called it the Pacific. It is also called the South Sea, because veasels sailing from Europe can only cuter it after a long southerly course. The name of South Sea has been limited in later times to the southern portion of the Pacific.
The Pacific is the greatest expanse of water on the globe, of which it covers nearly one-half of the surface. The area 19 roughly estimated at nearly 100,000,000 of square miles. Behring's Strait, its most northern boundary, lies between East Cape in Asia and Cape Prince of Wales near 66° N. lat., and is less than 40 miles wide. From this point southward the coasts of both continents, which inclose the Pacific, recede rapidly from one another; and at 54' 30' N. lat., between • the western point of the peninsula of Alashka and Cape Krotzkoi Noss in Kamtehatka, they are upwards of 1200 miles apart. Near the northern tropic, Cape San Lucas in California is about 8500 miles from the coast of China east of Canton ; and this may be con sidered as nearly the average width of the Pacific between the tropics. Near the southern tropics, Sand Cape in Australia is about $200 miles from the northern coast of Chili. Towards the southern extremity the Pacific is divided from the Atlantic by a line drawn from Cape Horn to the antarctic circle, and from the Indian Ocean by another line drawn from South-West Cape in Tasmania (Van Diemen's Land) to the Fame circle.
The Pacific does not, like the Atlantic and Indian oceans, send off branches which penetrate deeply into the adjacent continents; but extensive peninsulas project from the continents which border on it on the Asiatic aide, and these, together with some adjacent rows of islands stretching far into the sea, separate considerable portions of it from the main body of the ocean. Only two peninsulas project from the American continent. The peninsula of California divides the Gulf of California, and the peninsula of Alashka with the Aleutian Islands divides the Kamtehatka Sea from the Pacific. The peninsula of Karntehatka, which projects from the continent of Asia, divides the Kamtehatka Sea from the Sea of Okhotsk, which latter is separated from the open expanse of the Pacific by the Kurile Islands. The
western shores of the Sea of Okhotsk are partly formed by the Island or peninsula of Tarakai (or Saghalien), which projects at a very acute angle from the continent of Asia ; and the islands of Jew and Nipon and tho peninsula of Corea inclose the Japan Sea on the north, east, and south. The Yellow Sea, or Hoang-hai, which is farther south, is separated from the Pacific by a series of islands which extend from the most southern extremity of the island of Kiusiu to the northern extremity of Formosa. This remarkable formation continues still farther south, and the Chinese Sea, which extends from the island of Formosa nu the northern tropic to the equator, must be considered as the last link In this chain of sea-basins. On the north the Chinese Sea is separated from the Pacific by a single row of islands, and farther south by a double and triple row. Thus we find that, though the continent of Asia forms the western boundary of the Pacific north of the equator, no part of it in immediately washed by that ocean, and its shores can only be reached by passing throngh one of these subordinate sea-basi mt.
This peculiarity of formation in the western parts of the Pacific appears to be mainly, if not exclusively, the effect of volcanic agency. The whole of the long series of peninsulas and islands which border the Pacific on the west, from the peninsula of Kamtehatka to the island of New Zealand, with the exception of Australia, contain active volcanoes or exhibit unequivocal traces of volcanic influence; so that in fact we may say that the western part of the Pacific is traversed by a volcanic chain which extends from the neighbourhood of the northern polar circle nearly to the southern tropics Another series of volcanoes surrounds the Pacific on the east, but they are situated on the continent of America. These volcanoes do not constitute a con tinuous chain; they rather occur in extensive groups at great distances from one another, but each group by itself may be considered as a chain, and the intermediate country shows evident traces of recent volcanic influence. These volcanoes are noticed generally under AMERICA, and more specifically under the countries in which they are situated. The chain of the Aleutian Islands, which contains more than 20 active volcanoes, connects as it were the American volcanoes with those of Asia. The most western volcano, situated on the island of Little Sitkbin, is not much more than 600 miles from the series of volcanoes which line the eastern coast of Kamtchatka.