Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 9 (Oceanic).djvu/24

xii north of Melanesia and east of the 130th meridian of east longitude; and lastly (5), but by no means least in importance, Australia, together with Tasmania.

As compared with all the other great divisions of the world, Oceania is unique in that, if we exclude Australia (which, although an island, is so enormous In size as to lose all insular characteristics), it is composed wholly of Islands. These vary in size from mere reefs or islets, only a mile or so in diameter, to great land masses, like New Zealand or Borneo, whose areas are to be measured by hundreds of thousands of square miles. Some are low coral atolls elevated only a few feet above the surface of the sea; others are volcanic and mountainous, their summits rising into the realms of perpetual snow. Although the greater part of Oceania lies within the tropics and has the usual features of tropical environment in the way of climate, flora, and fauna, it extends here and there far Into the temperate zone, and the snowy New Zealand Alps, with their huge glaciers, suggest Switzerland and Norway rather than anything else. In New Guinea, Borneo, and (to a less degree) in a few other Islands the same great contrast in environment is produced by elevation alone, and one may thus pass from the barren peaks and snows of the highest ranges down through all the Intermediate stages to the hot tropical jungle and feverladen swamps of the coasts. Australia, In its vast expanses of terrible deserts, again presents a striking contrast to the other parts of the area, although one of a different sort.

The native peoples of the Oceanic area are almost as varied as are its natural features and environment. Some, like the recently discovered New Guinea pygmies or the now extinct Tasmanlans, serve as examples of the lowest stages known in human culture. With their black skins, ugly faces, and short woolly hair they are in striking contrast to the often little more than brunette Polynesians, with their voluptuously beautiful forms and faces and long, wavy hair, or to the lithe, keen-faced, straight-haired Malay, both of whom attained to no mean