tHS*"***^1"
ETHNOGRAPHY
ÓF THE
OCEANIC NATIONS.
CHAPTER I.
' GENERAL' SURVEY.
f S ectio^ I .^Geographical Outline,
T he Great Southern Ocean; together with the numerous
islands and grouped,of islands included1 within its limits, has
heen; reckoned .by^modern geographers ,as constituting a fifth
division of the gfetje.;. The name of Oceanica has been given
to .this region by Malte-Brun ancLby other writers who have
folloHved' The boundaries- of Oeeanica in the widest
acceptation of that name are, on .one side, the eastern coast
of Africa; on .the other,, the western shores of the New
World. In latitude it extends, from the coast of Asia southwards
withonh limit, including all the. insulated lands that
have been discovered in the Austral Seas. The Island of
Madagascar and Easter Island in the Pacific are the extreme
parts within this vast space which are recognised as inhabited;
countries* *of Oceanica. In the Northern Pacific alone
its extent ;may be subject to some doubt. The Kurilian
and Aleutian Islands are riot usually reckoned as belonging
to it, because they are known to be inhabited by races of
people who came immediately from the adjacent continents,
VOL. v . B