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23. The SANDWICH ISLANDS are ten in number, and are situated farther north. They are in 21° N. lat., 2,800 miles from the coast of Mexico and 5000 from China. Owhyhee or Hawaii, the largest is 97 miles long and 78 in breadth: the whole island is volcanic, and near the eastern shore is a volcano in constant activity. The climate is pleasant and healthy, and the soil very rich. The population of all the islands is about 140,000. Missionaries are established here, and the islands are much frequented by American and English ships.

24. EASTER ISLAND is the most easterly of all the islands which come within the present division. It is about equidistant from Otaheite and the coast of Chile. It is small, but inhabited, and contains some remarkable colossal sculptures.

25. NATURAL PRODUCTIONS. The vegetable kingdom of Oceanica presents to us all the riches of India in new splendor, and accompanied by new pleasures unknown to Asia. In the Sunda islands, the Philippines, and the Moluccas, rice occupies the place of wheat; and the culture of it is probably extended over New Guinea. Farther to the east, in the islands of Polynesia, there are four exceedingly useful esculent plants, which grow either spontaneously, or under the influence of culture; the potato, the yam, and two species of arum, from which, by culture and boiling, a sweet farinaceous substance is obtained. The numerous family of the palms is extended over the most remote and smallest islands. Between the tropics there is scarcely a rock or a sand-bank on which these trees do not display their astonishing vegetation. Another family of nutricious trees enjoyed by the Oceanican nations is that of the Artocarpi, or bread-fruit trees. The pomegranate and the orange abound in all their varieties. The orange tree extends as far as the New Hebrides. The bamboo, the sugar cane, and nardus, three gramineous species indigenous in India, grow still more luxuriantly in the marshes of Java and Sumatra than on the banks of the Ganges. The sugar cane is found as far to the east as Otaheite, but it differs essentially from that of the West India islands.

26. INHABITANTS OF OCEANICA. There are two races of these; one of the same race with the Malays, and the other, a race of negroes. The latter are diminutive and seldom exceed five feet in height. They live in New Holland, Van Diemens Land, &c. They resemble monkeys nearly as much as men, and when they wish to attain a wife they lie in wait for a woman, knock her down and carry her off. The New Zealanders are of the same race with the Otaheitans and warlike, revengeful, intelligent, and much disposed to improvement. The Pela Islanders are a gay, simple and amiable people. The inhabitants of the Friendly Islands are somewhat similar, but, on the whole, less gentle. The inhabitants of the Society islands have lately been much improved by the residence of the missionaries. They are like the others a handsome race. The Marquesans as are in many respects similar, but excel all the others in regularity of feature. The Sandwich islanders are gentle and friendly; but like all their race have lost their best traits by associating with Europeans, without having gained much knowledge or civilization in exchange The native inhabitants of the Philippines have much more energy and intelligence than the Hindoos, and they have much improved by communication with Europeans. The Spaniards are depraved in morals. The interior of Borneo is occupied by a native race, similar to the Sumatrans. They are handsomer than the Malays. No man can marry among them who has not cut off an enemy's head, so that a constant state of war or skirmishing exists. The Malays are numerous and powerful, and the sultan of Borneo is a Malay prince. The inhabitants of Celebes are vigorous and high-minded. They are allowed by law three days in which they may take life to avenge a blow. Some will not tolerate even a haughty manner from another. A person under a high excitement of anger, disgrace, or loss, sometimes seizes a

weapon and running furiously out stabs all he meets till he is himself kild like a wild beast. The police officers have three pronged forks to arrest the progress of such desperadoes. This custom extends to Java and other islands The Mohammedanism has much influence here. The Javanese are inferior to the Malays. They are gentle and respectful to timidity. The reverence, or fear which they show to superiors is extreme, receiving commands in the humblest postures, and frequently repeating' yes, my lord and master.' The whole however implies little more than touching the hat in Europe, and a Javanese peasant is a quiet and happy mortal. Agriculture is the general employment. Opium is too much used, and betel leaf and areca nut, universally. The Chinese inhabitants monopolize the handicrafts. The government is a complete despotism and the people have no rights whatever, but the se curity of custom. The Sumatrans are light and well made, but the skulls of infants are compressed, the nose flattened, and the ears pulled out, so that they stand at right angles with the head. The great set their teeth in gold. The people of the mountains have wens or goitres. The Battas, in many respects, are a civilized people, but practise cannibalism on criminals. To be eaten is a part of the sentence. Nearly 100 are eaten in a year.

27. ANIMALS. The most remarkable animal of this quarter of the globe, is the Orang Outang, or wild man. He is not very common, but is mostly

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found in Borneo. He is from 3 to 4 feet in height, and nearly covered with a brownish red hair. He is incapable of walking erect, but seems peculiarly fitted for climbing trees. In his habits, he is very similar to a common monkey. One was carried to England in 1817, but died two years afterwards. The only one ever seen in America was brought to Boston from Borneo in 1831; from this individual the above accurate likeness was drawn.

The Kangaroo is a native of New Holland. It is sometimes 9 feet in

length, including the tail, and moves by springing 20 feet at a leap, which it is enabled to do by the enormous length of its hind legs. The female has an abdominal pouch, like the opossum, for the reception of the young.

The Flying Opossum is found in New Holland its wings or membranes are like those of a squirrel, but broader.

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The Emeu is a native of New Holland, and is something like the Cassowary. It is next to the ostrich in size, and runs with great swiftness.

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The Black Swan is found in New Holland and Van Diemen's Land. In form and habits he is similar to the white swan but somewhat smaller.

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The Duck-billed Platypus, is a most singular animal. It is about the size of a cat, covered with fur and web-footed: instead of a mouth furnished with teeth it has the bill of a duck. It lives in watery and muddy spots.

920

GENERAL VIEW OF THE EARTH.

CHAPTER CXV.-GENERAL VIEW OF THE EARTH.

1. EXTENT AND CONFIGURATION. The total superficies of the globe is usually est mated at about 200,000,000 British square miles, and the natural division of this surface is into earth and water: about seven tenths of the whole being occupied by the ocean, and the remaining three tenths consisting of land, elevated above the level of the sea, unequally dis tributed and interspersed with smaller collections of water, at various heights, and, in a few instances somewhat lower than the general surface of the ocean. The terrestrial surface consists of two continuous spaces of land, of vast extent, distinguished by the name of the Old and New Continent; and a multitude of smaller detached portions called islands. 2. MOUNTAINS. The most considerable elevations of the earth's surface are cal mountains. Hills are distinguished from mountains from their smaller size. A series af mountains or hills, connected together by one continuous base, such as the Andes, is called a chain. A collection of these chains is called a system. Thus we say the system of the Alps, the Julian chain. Mountains present a variety of external forms. Their general shape is conical: that is, they diminish gradually into a more or less pointed summit.

3. LAKES. Those collections of waters surrounded on all sides by the land, and having no visible connexion with the sea, nor any perceptible current, are called lakes. There are a vast number of lakes scattered over the surface of the earth.

4. The OCEAN. The bed or basin of the ocean, being only a continuation of the lan2, exhibits the same inequalities of surface which continents present. Were the sea dried up it would present a scene of mountains, valleys, rocks, and plains, covered in some instances with their own peculiar vegetation, and the abode of various species of animals. The depa of the sea varies greatly in different places. The greatest depth ever measured was that ascertained by Mr Scoresby, the captain of a Greenland whaler, who sunk a very heavy lead in the Greenland Sea, to the depth of nearly 4,700 feet without finding grond. The color of the ocean is generally of a deep bluish green, particularly in the deeper seas; as the depth diminishes towards the coasts, the water assumes a lighter shade.

5. CLIMATE. The torrid zone has only two seasons; viz the wet and the dry; the former corresponding to the winter season, and the latter to that of summer. In some coustries there are two summers and two winters, which are distinguished as the long and short summer and winter seasons. The temperate zone approximates very closely in climate to the torrid zone in its immediate neighborhood; but the difference of seasons becomes visite as the distance from the limits of the latter increases.

It seldom snows in low countries till we reach the 40th parallel; but the trees lose ther leaves during the short winter. The difference of seasons is most observable between the 40th and 60th parallels. Here the weather is most changeable, and local circumstances produce the greatest diversity of climate. Spring and autumn gradually shorten as we proceed towards the high north; and in the neighborhood of the Polar zones we again observe only two seasons; the short summer and long winter, hordering so closely upon each other, that in the short space of a few days, hardly deserving the name of a season, vegetable life springs into activity. With the elevation of a country the temperature decreases. Coast districts are always less cold than the inland ones, and that not merely because they are usually less elevated, but also because the sea preserves a more equable temperature, which it cont nicates to the adjoining country.

6. CURRENTS. Besides these motions of the ocean, there is another not so easily arcounted for. There is felt in the open sea between the Tropics, and as far as the 30th degree of latitude, a constant motion from east to west, which manifests itself in the quick sailing of vessels moving in that direction. The most celebrated of these currents is the Gulf-stream, which rises in the Gulf of Mexico, between Florida and the Bahama islands, and sets in a bended and expanded flow northeasterly, along the coasts of North America, till it reaches Norway whence repulsed by the Scandinavian coasts, it turns northwest towards Greenland. This current is known by the beautiful blue color of its waters.

7. PASSAGE WINDS. Between the tropics, and even beyond them, to the 28th and 32d, and on the northeast American coast to the 40th degree of latitude, a constant wind blows which is called by sailors the passage wind. In the northern hemisphere this wind is more or less northeast and in the southern, southeast.

8. MONSOONS. The passage winds are most regular in the open ocean; but from this rule the Indian Ocean forms an exception. In the southern part of this body of water, to the 10th degree of south latitude, we find the east passage wind; but advancing northwarde we meet with regularly alternating winds blowing from a free quarter. These have received the name of monsoons or moussons, from the Malay mussinor, season.' Northwards from the equator a strong southwest wind, accompanied with storms and rain, blows from April to October; and during the remainder of the year, a gentle northeast wind prevails.

9. POPULATION AND LANGUAGES. The population of the globe may be estimated at $30,000,000. The various languages with their different dialects amount to 3012 namely; m America 1200. Africa 276. Europe 545. Asia and Oceanica 991. These may be reduced to about 80 original languages, of which the others are only branches.

STATISTICS OF THE UNITED STATES.

le showing the whole Quantity of Land in those States and Territories in which public land is ed; the Quantity of Public Land to which the Indian title had been extinguished June 30, 1828; he Quantity to which it had not been extinguished June 30, 1828.

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