The vast Pacific stretches 9,300 miles from the Arctic Circle at Bering Strait to the Antarctic. It is the world's largest ocean and covers a third of the earth. Along the equator it reaches nearly halfway around the globe. It is nearly 64 millon square miles in area - greater than the entire land area of the world.It holds half the water on the earth.
The Pacific is also the world's deepest ocean. Its ave-rage depth is more than two and a half miles. It is deepest in the Mariana Trench, an undersea canyon southeast of the Mariana Islands. Soendings of about 36,000 feet have been made there.If Mount Everest,the earth's highest mountain, were set down in the Trench's deepest part, its tip would be more than 7,000 feet below the surface of the sea.
The mighty Pacific washes the shores of five continents- North America, South America, Asia, Australia, and Antarctica. Its waters mingle in the southeast with the Atlantic Ocean and in the southwest with the Indian Ocean.It is not on the shores of continents or in the coastal islands, however, that the soul of the great Pacific is found.It lies far out where the fabled South Sea Islands are scatterd over the huge ocean like stars in the sky. No one knows how many islands rise from its blue waters. In the Philippines alone there are more than 7,000 islands and islets.
The air that sweeps the South Sea Islands is fragrant with flowers and spice. Bright warm days follow clear cool nights, and the rolling swells break in a never-ending roar on the shores. Overhead the slender coconut palms whisper their drowsy song.
When white men first came to the Pacific islands, they found that the people living there were like happy children. They were tall mem and beautiful women who seemed not to have a care in the world. Coconut palms and breadfruit trees grew at the doors of their huts. The ocean was filled with turtles and fish, ready for the net.The islanders had little need for clothing. There was almost no disease. some of the early explorers were so fascinated with the Pacific islands that they never returned to their own coun- tries. They preferred to stay.
The Pacific islands have changed a great deal since white men first landed on their shores. The peaceful-look-ing is lands are still there, but the people who once lived in such carefree happiness are vanishing. On islands where thousands lived a hundred years ago, only a few score are left.
