1. Oceanica.-Oceanica includes all the islands of the Pacific Ocean south of the Tropic of Cancer. It consists of the great archipelagoes of Malaysia and Melanesia, the continent of Australia, together with the islands of Tasmania and New Zealand, and Polynesia.

2. Malaysia. — The population of Malaysia is about 40,000,000, or nearly five times as much as that of all the rest of Oceanica. The people are mostly Mohammedan Malays, and are brave, intelligent, and in part civilized. The climate is similar to that of the West Indies. 3. The Philippine Islands, the most northern group of Malaysia, belong to Spain. The capital, Manila, is a great emporium; its exports include sugar, tobacco, cigars, indigo, Manila-hemp, cordage, and hats.

Java, Celebes, the Moluccas, many smaller islands, and parts of Sumatra and of Borneo belong to the Netherlands, and are called the Dutch East Indies. They are rich in spices and tin, and, next to British India, are the most magnificent of colonial possessions. Java, the most important of these islands, contains about twenty-three millions of inhabitants. Batavia, the capital and the chief commercial depot, exports the tin of Borneo and Banca, the

pepper of Sumatra, the cloves, nutmegs, and other spices of the Moluccas and Celebes, and other tropical products. 4. Melanesia.-Melanesia, or "Land of the Blacks," is a long group of islands extending from New Guinea to New Caledonia. It is inhabited by a cannibal, negrolike race called Papuans.

5. Australia. The continent of Australia and the islands of Tasmania and New Zealand are British possessions. The area of Australia is nearly equal to that of the United States, excluding Alaska. Its colonial divisions are Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, West Australia, and South Australia, with its dependency, Northern Territory. Victoria, the most important, equals in area all the New England States, together with New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland.

The greater part of the interior of Australia is yet unexplored. probably consists mainly of low desert plains. The continent is nearly encircled by a rim of low mountains, the highest being on the eastern side. Between these and the almost unbroken coasts is a narrow belt of lowlands. There are but few rivers.

6. Population.-The European population is over three millions, the greater part being in Victoria and New South Wales. The original savage inhabitants are nearly exterminated.

7. Government.-The colonies are politically inde

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pendent of one another, and are governed by representatives chosen by the people and by executive officers appointed by the Crown. A federation is projected.

S. Climate. The northern part of Australia has a tropical climate; the southern part is subject to sudden. and great changes of temperature, and to an irregular succession of floods and droughts.

9. Vegetation. In the wooded regions the trees, which are chiefly evergreens, stand wide apart, have few leaves, and cast little shade. Some exceed in height the great trees of California.

10. Animals. — Many of the native quadrupeds are pouched animals, some being as tall as a man, others no larger than a rat. Among the most singular are the kangaroo, the wombat, and the duck-bill; the last has webbed feet and a broad bill like a duck. Among the birds are the apteryx, which has no wings, and the lyrebird, the tail-feathers of which resemble a lyre.

11. Productions.-Australia produces wheat, indigo, cotton, sugar, coffee, tin, and copper. The scattered but rich grasses support many millions of sheep and cattle. It is the chief wool-growing country in the world, and is second only to the United States in the production of gold. 12. Commerce.-Nearly all the maritime commerce is with Great Britain, and is carried on by steamers. Railways and telegraph lines connect the two largest cities, Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, and Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, with other towns. important towns are Ballarat, Geelong, Paramatta, Adelaide, Brisbane, and Perth. The chief exports are wool, cotton, wheat, gold, and copper.

Other

The Australian Colonies and New Zealand, though distant nearly half of the circumference of the globe from Great Britain, are in telegraphic communication with that country. A land line from the principal cities crosses the middle of the continent to the northwestern coast, and is continued by an ocean cable to British India. Other lines and cables connect this latter country with London. A line of ocean steamers, plying between Australia, the Feejee and Sandwich Islands, and San Francisco, connects the commercial system of the United States with that of Australia.

13. Tasmania and New Zealand are very mountainous. The productions of Tasmania are similar to those of Australia. The capital is Hobart Town.

New Zealand is a little larger than Great Britain. Gold, wheat, and New Zealand flax are the chief exports. Wellington is the capital.

14. Polynesia.-Polynesia consists of many thousands of small oceanic islands situated in the Pacific Ocean and within the Torrid Zone.

15. The Polynesians are mostly Malays and Pagan sav ages. The Sandwich Islands, Tahiti, the Feejee Islands, and the Samoan Islands have become Christian states. 16. The Sandwich Islands, the most important group, produce sugar and cotton of an excellent quality. They contain many volcanoes; one of these, Mauna Loa, has the largest crater in the world; its black lava wall encloses a lake of fire. The government is a limited monarchy. The capital, Honolulu, is an important port.

NOTE. The trade of the United States with the countries on the shores of the Pacific Ocean and with the islands scattered over its surface is rapidly growing in importance. From some of these islands the exports are already large in quantity and of great value. No other equal area of land surface on the globe is capable of yielding a larger amount of sugar, cotton, and other tropical products, and no people are so well situated to engage in this commerce as those occupying the western coast of the United States.

Questions (I.)-1. What does Oceanica include? What great archipelagoes? What continent? What islands? What other division?-2. What is the population of Malaysia? Of what race and religion? Of what character and social condition? What is said of the climate?-3. What islands belong to Spain? What is the capital? What is said of it? What are the exports? What islands belong to the Netherlands? What is said of them? Of Java? Of Batavia?-4. What is Melanesia? By whom inhabited ?-5. To what country do Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand belong? What is the area of Australia? Name its colonial divisions. What is said of the area of Victoria ?-6. What is said of the European population of Australia? Of the original inhabitants?-7. How are the colonies governed?-8. What is the climate of Australia?-9. What is said of the trees of Australia?-10. Of the native animals? -11. Of the productions? Of the sheep and cattle? Of wool? Of gold?-12. How is the maritime commerce conducted? With what country? What are the means of internal communication? Name the important towns. What are the chief exports?-13. What is the character of the surface of Tasmania and New Zealand? What are the productions of Tasmania? Its capital? What is the size of New Zealand? What are the chief exports? What city is the capital?-14. Of what does Polynesia consist?-15. Of what race are the Polynesians? In what social state? What three important exceptions ?-16. What is said of the Sandwich Islands? Of their volcanoes? Government? The capital?

(II.)-5. What is said of the interior of Australia? Of the mountains? Of the lowlands? Of the coasts? Of the rivers?-12. How do the Australian colonies communicate with Great Britain? How is the commercial system of Australia connected with that of the United States?-14. How are the islands arranged? What do they seem to be? What is an atoll?

CV.

QUESTIONS ON THE MAP.

In what zone is most of the continent of Africa? (See Physical Map.) What waters surround it? What cape at the northern extremity? At the eastern? The southern? The western? Near Cape Agulhas? What great island is nearly parallel to the eastern coast? What channel between them? What mountains parallel to the southern coast? To the Mediterranean Sea? East of the Gulf of Guinea: What desert is crossed by the Tropic of Cancer? By the Tropic of Capricorn? What river in the northeastern part of Africa? Name its three principal branches. What plateau is partly drained by the Blue Nile? What lakes by the White Nile? Name other lakes in the Lake Region. What river flows into the Mozambique Channel? What rivers flow into the Atlantic Ocean? What islands northwest of Madagascar? East of Madagascar? (Mascarene Islands.) Name the two largest. What solitary islands in the Atlantic Ocean south of the Equator?

What general name is given to the countries forming the northwestern border of Africa? (See Political Map.) Name the Barbary States. What country occupies the northeastern part of Africa? What country to the south is claimed by Egypt? What country southeast of Nubia? What countries border on the Indian Ocean? What British colonies and dependencies (see text, p. 119) in Southern Africa? What three republics? What general name is given to the western coast north of the Equator? South of the Equator? To the country south of Sahara? What countries west of Upper Guinea? What country occupies the centre of Equatorial Africa?

What city is the capital of Egypt? At the western mouth of the Nile? At the eastern mouth? What name is given to the triangular

piece of lowland having Cairo, Alexandria, and Damietta at the angles? (The Delta, from its resemblance to A, the Greek letter D.) What towns on the Suez Canal? What cities in Abyssinia? What is the capital of Zanzibar? On what island? What is the capital of Madagascar? Name the capitals of Cape Colony and Natal. Of Orange Free State. Of the South African Republic, or Transvaal. Of Liberia. Of Sierra Leone. What city southwest of Fez? capital of Tripoli? Of Tunis?

Of the New Republic. What city is the capital of Morocco? What cities in Algeria? What is the Of Fezzan? Barca?

CVI.

REVIEW EXERCISES.

Principal Divisions and Subdivisions. Where is it?-Barbary Fezzan? States? Morocco? Algeria? Tunis? Tripoli? Barca? Egypt? Nubia? Egyptian Soudan? Abyssinia? Zanzibar? Mozambique? Cape Colony? Natal? South African Republic, or Transvaal? Orange Free State? New Republic? Upper Guinea? Senegambia? Sierra Leone? Liberia? Lower Guinea? Sahara? Soudan?

Rivers. Where does it rise? In what direction does it flow? Into what body of water?-Nile? White Nile? Blue Nile? Atbara? Zambesi? Orange? Congo? Niger?

Cities. In what part of the country? How situated?-CAIRO? Alexandria? Damietta? Port Said? Suez? GONDAR? Adowa? Antalo? Ankobar? ZANZIBAR ? TANANARIVO? BLOEMFONTEIN? CAPE TOWN? PIETERMARITZBURG? PRETORIA? VRYHEID? MONROVIA ? FREE TOWN? FEZ? Morocco ? Mequinez? ALGIERS? Constantine? Oran? TUNIS? TRIPOLI? MOURZOUK? TIMBUCTOO? KANO? SOKOTO? KUKA?

Bengazi?