ducing yams, pulse, cocoa-nuts, sugar-cane, and wild cotton. The inhabitants are Malays, and are the least civilised of all the natives of Polynesia. They carry on war with the most savage ferocity, and practise cannibalism. The French, since 1842, have occupied the two largest islands, and claim the whole group as a colonial territory. Easter Island, the most eastern of all the countless islands of the Pacific, is situated in lat. 27° S., and lon. 110° W., far to the S. E. of the Gambier Archipelago, and upwards of 2000 m. W. of the coast of South America. Though only 12 m. long and 4 broad, this island has of late excited much interest among geographers, on account of the numerous relics of a former civilisation found on it, consisting of huge sculptured stones bearing inscriptions now unintelligible, and well-executed statues of immense size, immeasurably beyond the artistic skill of the existing Inatives, who do not differ from the generality of eastern Polynesians. Similar traces of a superior race are found in other islands farther west, and not remotely resembling the works of art found in Mexico and Peru, especially on the islands of Lake Titicaca. Is it possible that Manco Capac and his fellows crossed the Pacific through the islands of Polynesia, Easter Island being the last stepping-stone across the boundless world of waters? The natives of Easter Island have a tradition that their fathers, many hundred years ago, arrived here from Oparo in the Gambier archipelago, 1900 m. distant; and though their present language bears no resemblance to that of the ancient Peruvians, but is closely allied to that of New Zealand and the Sandwich Isles, we know that nations sometimes change their language, and we understand that the word "Titicaca "itself pure Malayo-Polynesian. ANTARCTICA. SUCH is the name given to those extensive tracts of land, recently discovered within the Antarctic Circle, by British, French, and American navigators, and supposed to form portions of a great continent round the South Pole. As the leading features of this inhospitable region have been described in our remarks on the "Antarctic Ocean" (p. 26), we here merely remark, that should the explored tracts be found to be continuous, and the existence of a Southern Continent put beyond doubt, we shall then have seven continents— viz., Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Australia, and Antarctica; and seven corresponding oceans-viz., the Arctic, North Atlantic, South Atlantic, Indian, North Pacific, South Pacific, and Antarctic Oceans. If the world we inhabit was indeed created and moulded by the divine hand, this remarkable fact is precisely what we might have expected. Seven is everywhere the number denoting perfection. It is God's signature, stamped on the works of His hands, signifying that the work is His, and that man must neither add nor diminish. Scripture is full of it in its every section, and Nature evinces innumerable traces of it. Thus we have seven days' work of creation, seven days in the week, seven colours in the sunbeam, seven notes in the diatonic scale, seven petitions in the one perfect prayer, and all founded on the seven attributes of the Eternal! 633 INDEX. ABBREVIATIONS. Arch. Archipelago; B. Bay; C. Cape; Ch. Channel; Est. Estuary; Fr. Frith; Ft. AA R., 205, 225 234 Abrantes, 180, 185 Accrington, 117, 138 Aar, Lr., Gl., 275 139 - Abergele, 119, 132, 138 Abernethy, 146, 159 141 Achil Hd., 169 Adda R., 77, 290 Amu Daria R., 427 Anahuac M., 506, Andalucia, 75, 81 Andover (U.S.), 534 134 201 Argyll, 100, 146, 152 Ariano, 282, 289 361 Armenia Mts., 349 Arnheim, 74, 222, Arragon, 75 Arran, 95, 151, 156 Ardnamurchan Pt., Arras, 74, 196, 200, Ardila R., 185 Antwerp, 74, 215, Ardish, 359 Anzin, 196, 225 Aosta, 282, 290 570 Arezzo, 282, 285, 541 Argish, 312 R., Arrow R., 139 Arzamas, 320, 329 Ascension I., 109, 441 Ashton under Lyne, 117, 126, 138 601 Aspropotamo R., 302 Assen, 74, 222, 224 Asuncion, 599, 601 Atacama, 589, 592, 599, 601 Athos M., 311 Atkinson, 536 Atlanta, 535, 541 |