SOUTH SEA, or Pacific Ocean, is that vast body of water interposed between Asia and America. It does not, however, strictly speaking, reach quite to the continent of Asia, excepting to the northward of the peninsula of Malacca; for the water interposed between the eastern coast of Africa and the peninsula just mentioned has the name of the Indian Ocean. The South Sea, then, is bounded on one side by the western coast of America, through its whole extent, from the unknown regions in the north to the Straits of Magellan and Terra del Fuego, where it communicates with the southern part of the Atlantic. On the other side, it is bounded by the coast of Asia, from the northern promontory of Tschukotskoi Noss, to the peninsula of Malacca already mentioned. Thence it is bounded to the southward by the northern coasts of Borneo, Celebes, Massacassar, New Guinea, New Holland, and the other islands in that quarter, which divide it from the Indian Ocean. Then, washing the eastern coast of the great island of New Holland, it communicates with that vast body of water encompassing the whole southern part of the globe, and which has the general name of the Southern Ocean. Thus does this vast ocean occupy almost the semicircumference of the globe, reaching nearly from one pole to the other, and about the equatorial parts extending almost 180° in longitude, or 12,500 of our miles. The northern parts of the Pacific Ocean are entirely destitute of land, not a single island having yet been discovered in it from the latitude of 40° north and upwards, excepting such as are very near
the coast either of Asia or America; but in the southern part the islands are very numerous. See POLYNESIA.