Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 07.djvu/106

LEFT PACIFIC RAILBOADS 74 PACINIAN BODIES 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 southei'n 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 Ion. 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. PACIFIC RAILROADS, a general name given to all the railroads connect- ing the Pacific coast of the United States with other parts of the country, to which the aid of the National government was given in their construction. In 1862 an act was passed, granting to the com- panies five sections of public land and $16,000 in government bonds for every mile constructed, the land and bonds for every stretch of 40 miles to be turned over to the company only on the completion of such stretch. The Union Pacific railroad was built W. over the mountains, and the Central Pacific rail- road was built E. from Sacramento. These two lines were joined, with im- pressive ceremonies, at Promontory Point, Utah, May 10, 1869. The last tie, of laurel wood, with a plate of silver upon it, was laid, and the last spike, made of iron, silver, and gold, was driven in the presence of distinguished men. Telegraph wires were attached to the last rail, and the last blows were signaled upon bells in Washington and other large cities. In May, 1878, an act, known as the Thurman Act, was passed. In addition to the amounts retained out of sums due for government service, the Act of 1862 provided for the payment of 5 per cent, of the net earnings of the company. The Act of 1878 retained the entire amount due to the companies for gov- ernment service, one-half to be applied to interest payments, one-half to form a sinking fund for the principal, and it required, moreover, the annual payment of a fixed sum ($850,000 for the Union Pacific and $1,200,000 for the Central Pacific). See Railways. PACIFIC UNIVERSITY, a coeduca- tional institution in Forest Grove, Ore.; founded in 1853 under the auspices of the Congregational Church; reported at the close of 1919 : Professors and in- structors, 12: students, 150; Dean, R. F. Clark, A.M. PACIFIC UNIVERSITY, a coeduca- tional institution in San Jose, Cal., founded in 1852 under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church; re- ported in 1919: 34 instructors; 465 stu- dents; President, J. L. Seaton, Ph. D. PACINIAN BODIES, or PACINIAN CORPUSCLES, certain corpuscles ap- pended to the nerves; first noticed by Pacini in 1830 and 1835, and described by him in 1840. In the human subject they are found in great numbers in con- nection with the nerves of the hand and foot, the nerves, as it may be presumed, of touch; but they also exist sparingly on other spinal nerves, and on the plex- uses of the sympathetic, though never on the nerves of motion.