dates only from 1840. The Maori race has been nearly expelled from the South Island. The government (as in the Australian States) consists of a Governor appointed from England, and a Parliament elected in the colony. The Governor is obliged to employ as Ministers such men as can command a Parliamentary majority.

The chief town of New Zealand is Auckland, population hardly 10,000; the colonists are chiefly occupied in agriculture and sheep-farming.

Sect. XLIV. POLYNESIA.

585. The term Polynesia includes the tropical islets of the Pacific Ocean. They are all very small, the area of the whole being perhaps 60,000 square miles, that is, somewhat less than Britain; and the whole population perhaps 500,000, that is, less than that of many an English county.

The climate of these Pacific Islands is magnificent—that which has been designated Oceanic Equatorial; they never suffer from cold, while the tropical heat is so tempered by the vast expanse of water and sea-breezes that it is neither disagreeable nor unhealthy to an Englishman.

The islands may be thrown mostly into two classes, viz. (1) the Volcanic Islands, which have either volcanoes active on them, or volcanic rocks; these islands are often mountainous and (2) the Coral Islands, which are elevated little above the sea, having been built up by coral while the bed of the ocean slowly subsided.

The inhabitants are of the Malayan race, except in the case of a few islands near Papua, which are inhabited by men of the Papuan or Australian race.

These islands, when discovered, were almost without indigenous quadrupeds (and without snakes), but the dog, pig, and rat are introduced. The natural main support of human life in them is the bread fruit; it is said that three bread-fruit trees per head are enough to support a human

population. Other plants cultivated are the yam, banana, sweet potato, and New Zealand taro.

The population of Polynesia (as of Australia and New Zealand) has decreased regularly and vastly since its discovery by Europeans. Even where the indigenous population has not been ill-treated by the European visitor, rum and the small-pox are communicated. Moreover, many complaints, petty among Europeans, spread in a fatal form among these fresh nations.

The following are a few of the islands comprised in Polynesia :

(1) The Ladrones belong to Spain. Their population is now 6,000, but is said to have been 100,000 when the Spaniards first went there.

(2) The Fiji, or Viti Islands, have been annexed by England in 1874. Till lately cannibalism was practised here. Henceforth cotton is to be grown.

(3) The Friendly Islands, so-named by Cook out of compliment to the character of the natives, who are reckoned the flower of Polynesians.

(4) The Society Islands, of which the chief is Otaheite or Tahiti, annexed by the French.

(5) The Marquesas, a cannibal group; the French have got a station here.

(6) The Sandwich Islands, of which the chief is Owhyhee. Honolulu the chief town, population 10,000, is the port of the Pacific, and was the see of an English bishop. The government is European in form. The islands are volcanic ; Mouna Loa, alt. 13,750 feet, is an active volcano.

Sect. XLV. NORTH AMERICA.

586. EXTENT. The area of North America is more than double that of Europe: the population less than that of England and France together.

587. BOUNDARIES. On the North the Arctic Ocean or channels connected with it on the East the Atlantic: on

the South the Gulf of Mexico and the Isthmus of Panama; on the West the Pacific.

588. ATTACHED ISLANDS. (1) Greenland and a number of other cold valueless islands in the Arctic Ocean : the boundaries of most are unknown: it is not easy to say where the land covered with glaciers ends and the frozen ocean begins.

(2) Newfoundland,

(3) The West India Islands, of which Cuba, Hayti, Jamaica are the chief.

(4) Vancouver's Island.

589. GULFS. (1) Baffin's Bay, Hudson's Bay.

(2) The Gulf of St. Lawrence.

(3) The Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Sea.

(4) The Gulf of California,

590. PENINSULAS. (1) Labrador, (2) Nova Scotia, (3) Florida, (4) Yucatan, (5) California.

591. STRAITS. (1) Davis Straits, leading into Baffin's Bay.

(2) Hudson's Straits, leading into Hudson's Bay.

(3) Yucatan channel, connecting the Gulf of Mexico with the Carribbean Sea.

(4) Behring's Straits, connecting the Arctic Ocean with the Pacific,

592, CLIMATE. Nearly half the whole area of America is outside the wheat-bearing zone, i.e. it is either Arctic or what we have called Sub-Arctic, The east side of America is (as in the Old World in the north temperate zone) colder than the west side: and on this eastern side wheat is hardly cultivated north of 48° N.L.

A very small area of North America is within the tropics: and here up to 2,000 feet altitude we find a humid, hot climate, producing a jungly vegetation, and very malarious

to man.

The west coast of America, from Vancouver's Island to Mexico, is a very fine and healthy climate. The whole of the vast region of the United States lies in the best region of the temperate zone, and is favourable to wheat and maize.

593. MOUNTAINS AND PLATEAUS. (1) The Rocky mountains run parallel with the west coast of North America and at no great distance from it the whole length of the continent, and the chain must be considered to extend (though under other names) to the Isthmus of Panama, where it finally sinks down nearly to sea-level.

(2) The Alleghany mountains run parallel with the east coast and not far from it in the United States.

The whole centre of the continent, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean, and from the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains, is one vast plain; very little broken in upon, even by local mountain ranges. It lies at small eleva

tion above the sea, quite unlike the central parts of the Old World continents. In journeying directly from the Gulf of Mexico to the headwaters of the Mississippi, and thence straight on to near the Arctic Ocean, a traveller would not have to cross any mountain range: he would see no lofty hill,

Volcanoes are numerous in Mexico, and some have been active in modern times. On the north-west coast of America Mount St. Elias is an active volcano, attaining 17,860 feet altitude, and there are other cones near it. This volcanic area is considered a prolongation of the Japan volcanic line.

(3) The Cascade Ranges is the name given to one of the many ranges that run parallel to the Rocky Mountains, and between them and the Pacific Ocean. The highest points of the Rocky Mountains are 16,000 feet high, but the general height of the range is hardly above 8,000, while many ranges between it and the Pacific exceed this elevation. But the Rocky Mountains are the true watershed that separates the waters that flow into the Atlantic from those that flow into the Pacific.

(4) The Salt Lake plateau lies between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific, and is a region of internal drainage. Salt Lake is 4,210 feet above the sea. Hence we can draw hereabouts two lines of watershed between the Atlantic and Pacific, one passing east and one west of Salt Lake; or, more strictly, the line of watershed from north to south is no longer

a line here, but spreads out so as to cover the whole of the Salt Lake basin.

(5) The Mexican plateau is 7,000 feet above the sea-level on the east side of the main watershed.

West from the Rocky Mountains there is a considerable area of elevated land, where the rivers flow in narrow gullies 2,000-5,000 feet deep. The descent from the Cascade Ranges to the Pacific is rapid. East from the Rocky Mountains the descent is at first rapid, afterwards more slow, till the great plain of the Mississippi is reached.

594. RIVERS. (1) The Mississippi, with its two great affluents, the Ohio on its left bank, the Missouri on its right. Measuring its course from the headwaters of the Missouri to the mouth of the Mississippi, the length exceeds 4,200 miles, and it is the longest river in the world. River steamers can ascend this main stream for more than 2,000 miles, and the whole Mississippi system has been calculated to possess more than 30,000 miles of river adapted for navigation.

(2) The St. Lawrence, more than 2,000 miles long, drains the great lakes, and flows by Quebec. Its navigation is impeded by waterfalls, and by its mouth being frozen up more than three months in the year.

(3) The Rio del Norte, more than 1,800 miles long, runs through a country at present imperfectly civilized, but will become a very important river.

(4) The Colorado, the chief river of California.

(5) The Columbia, the chief river of Oregon.

595. LAKES. (1) Superior, and the four other lakes of the St. Lawrence, viz. Michigan, Huron, Erie, Ontario. Superior contains 32,000 square miles, i.e. is the size of Ireland, and has been reckoned the largest body of fresh water in the world.

Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Erie are all nearly the same level, viz. about 560 feet above the sea; and Superior, Michigan, and Huron are all nearly 1,500 feet deep, so that their bottoms are below sea-level by 400 feet. Between Erie and Ontario are the falls of Niagara, reckoned the largest waterfall in the world before the Victoria Falls were