Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/132

 116 PACIFIC OCEAN Coasts, Seas, dr. The coast-line of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, taken together, only amounts to 47,000 miles ; that of the Atlantic alone measures 55,000, the smaller ocean more than making up for its less extent by its numerous inland seas and inlets of smaller size. Ameri- Speaking broadly, the eastern boundary of the Pacific is i-an rugged, barren, mountainous, and singularly free from indentations, while its western shores are low, fertile, and deeply indented with gulfs and partially enclosed seas. Behring Strait unites the Arctic Ocean with the Sea of Kamchatka, or Behring Sea, which is bounded on the east by the irregular, low, swampy shores of Alaska, and on the south by the Alaskan peninsula and the Aleutian Islands. Along British North America the coast is rugged, rocky, considerably indented, and, between the parallels of 50 and 60 N. lat., fringed with islands. The largest of these are Vancouver Island in the Gulf of Georgia, Queen Charlotte Island, Prince of Wales Island, and the islands of King George III. s Archipelago. The Gulf of California runs northwards in the Mexican coast, reach ing from 23 to 32 N. lat. It is the one important inlet on the whole west coast of America, the only others which are worth naming being the Gulf of Panama and the Gulf of Guayaquil. The Mexican shore is low, and contrasts with the coasts to the north and to the south, which are generally steep and rocky, though there are occasional sandy beaches in Peru and Chili. The breadth of the plain between the Rocky Mountains and the sea gradually diminishes towards the south, and the mountain chain of the Andes runs close along the west coast of South America to the very extremity of the con tinent. A series of volcanoes, active and extinct, runs round the Pacific, commencing at Cape Horn, passing along the Andes and Rocky Mountains, crossing from the American continent by the Aleutian Islands to Kamchatka, and thence southwards by Japan and the East Indian Archipelago to New Zealand. Earthquakes are frequent all along this line. There are few islands near the American coast north of Patagonia, and these are small and unimportant; but south of the 40th parallel there is a complete change. The end of the continent seems as if it had been shattered ; there are abrupt bays and jagged chasms ; archipelagos of small islands rise up in splintered fragments along the shore. The Strait of Magellan forms a tortuous channel between the mainland and the rocky storm-beaten islands of Tierra del Fuego. Asiatic The coast-line on the Asiatic side is longer and greatly diversified. In the north the Sea of Okhotsk is cut off from Behring Sea by the peninsula of Kamchatka, from the extremity of which a chain of islands extends to the borders of the Antarctic Ocean. These islands are of all sizes, ranging from small islets to the island continent of Australia. The island chain hangs in loops along the Asiatic coast, each loop including an almost land-locked sea. These partially enclosed seas are more or less com pletely cut off from the general oceanic circulation, and they consequently differ considerably from the open ocean as regards the temperature of the water, specific gravity, fauna and flora, and nature of the deposits. The Kurile Islands run from Kamchatka to Japan, cutting off the Sea of Okhotsk. The great Japanese Islands, with Saghalien to the north and the Chinese coast on the west, enclose the Sea of Japan, leaving it in communica tion with the Sea of Okhotsk by the Channel of Tartary to the north, with the ocean on the west by the Straits of La Perouse and Sangar, and on the south by the Straits of Corea. The Yellow Sea runs into the Chinese coast, and is divided from the Sea of Japan by the peninsula of coast. Corea. The China Sea, with the two great gulfs of Tonquin and Siam, is marked off from the Indian Ocean by the peninsula of Malacca remarkable because it runs in the same direction as the other two peninsulas of the Pacific, Kamchatka and Corea and the islands of Sumatra and Java, while Borneo and the Philippine Islands separate it from the Pacific. Between the south coast of China and the north of Australia the East Indian Archi pelago cuts up the ocean into a network of small seas and narrow channels. The seas are named the Celebes, the Banda, the Sulu, the Java, the Flores, and the Arafura. The more important of the sea passages between the islands are the Straits and Channel of Formosa, which lead north ward from the Pacific to the China Sea ; the Strait of Macassar between Borneo and Celebes ; Molucca Passage between Celebes, the Moluccas, and Jilolo; and Torres Strait between New Guinea and Australia. The east coast of Australia is, as a rule, steep and rocky ; there are few inlets, and none of them compare in size with the Gulf of Carpentaria on the north coast. Moreton Bay and Port Jackson are two of the best harbours, and as a haven the latter has few equals in the world. The Great Barrier Reef lies off this coast for a length of more than a thousand miles, the distance between it and the shore varying from 60 to 100 miles. Bass Strait separates Australia from Tasmania on the south ; and the two main islands of New Zealand, separated by Cook Strait, lie to the south east of the continent. The Gulf of Hauraki, the Bay of Plenty, and Pegasus Bay are the chief inlets in these islands. River-System. The drainage area of the Pacific Ocean is estimated at 8,660,000 square miles, while that of the Atlantic amounts to more than 19,000,000; the chief reason for this disparity is that only half a million square miles of the American continent are drained into the Pacific, the remaining six and a half millions being con nected with the Atlantic river-system, and it is estimated that only one-seventh of the area of the Asiatic continent drains into the Pacific Ocean. The huge wall of the Ancles Amen- practically reduces the Pacific rivers of South America to the can rank of mountain streams; the Biobio and the Maypu in l ^.^ m Chili are the only ones exceeding 100 miles in length, the former having a course of 180, the latter of 160 miles. The Rocky Mountain chain, which forms the watershed of North America, runs parallel to the Pacific coast at a distance of about 1000 miles, and the Cascade and minor ranges which skirt the shore are broken through in several places to give passage to rivers that are, in some cases, of considerable size. The Colorado rises in the State of that name, at the base of the Rocky Mountains, flows south west through Utah and Arizona, and falls into the head of the Gulf of California. Its course measures about 1100 miles, and it drains a rugged and barren area of 170,000 square miles. California has only one river, the Sacramento, 420 miles long. The Oregon (or Columbia) is formed by the union of two streams rising in the Rocky Mountains, one in British Columbia, the other in Idaho. It is a swift-flowing river, full of rapids and cataracts, and, though it is only 750 miles long, the area which it drains is greater by one-seventh than that drained by the Colorado. The ebb and flow of the tide are perceptible for a hundred miles from the mouth of the Oregon, and the river is- navigable for that distance. The Frazer, which has a length of 600 miles, flows southward through British Columbia from the Rocky Mountains, and enters the sea in the Gulf of Georgia opposite Vancouver Island, carrying off the rainfall of 98,000 square miles. The northern limit of the American mountain chains is marked by the rise of the great river Yukon, which traverses Alaska ; and, after a run of more than 2000 miles, it enters