the vast mass of salt water which encompasses all parts of the globe, and by means of which, in the present improved state of navigation, an easy intercourse subsists between places the most distant. The ocean is distinguished into three grand divisions; the Atlantic Ocean, which divides Europe and Africa from America, and is generally about three thousand miles wide; the Pacific Ocean, or South Sea, which divides America from Asia, and is generally about ten thousand miles over; and the Indian Ocean, which separates the East Indies from Africa, and is three thousand miles across. The other seas which are called oceans are only parts or branches of these, and usually receive their names from the countries which they border on. See Physical Geography.