The usual form of coral islands is that of a broken ring, numerous
channels affording entrance into the lagoon. Such a group of islands is
called an atoll, a Malay term, which has been adopted to designate these
singular structures. The central lagoon enclosed by an atoll, is
invariably shallow, seldom exceeding a few scores, or at most hundreds,
of feet in depth; while the outer sea reaches a depth of thousands of
feet at a short distance from the shore, showing that the atoll rests
upon a submarine mountain.
Atolls are often clustered together in large numbers, forming extensive
archipelagoes. Paumotu, or Low Archipelago, numbers eighty coral
islands, nearly all of which are atolls; the Caroline, Gilbert and
Marshall islands together contain eighty-four atolls, while the
Laccadive and Maldive islands form two long double series of atolls
extending eight hundred miles from north to south.
[Illustration: =MAP SHOWING COMPARATIVE SIZE OF ISLANDS=
(See next page for the Area, Population and Countries to which these
islands belong).
=ISLANDS OF WESTERN HEMISPHERE=]
=MOST NOTED ISLANDS OF THE WORLD--WESTERN HEMISPHERE=
-------------------------------------------+--------+----------
| =Area | =Popula-
=Name and Sovereignty= | Square | tion=
| Miles= |
-------------------------------------------+--------+----------
=Anticosti= (to Britain) | 2,600 | 500
=Bahamas= (to Britain) | 4,404 | 58,000
=Bermudas= (to Britain) | 20 | 20,000
=Cape Breton= (to Britain) | 3,120 | 100,000
=Cuba= (Independent) | 44,164 | 2,155,000
=Dominica= (to Britain) | 291 | 35,000
=Falkland= (to Britain) | 5,500 | 3,250
=Feeji, or Feejee= (to Britain) | 7,435 | 155,000
=Galapagos= (to Ecuador) | 2,400 | 400
=Greenland= (to Denmark) | 46,740 | 15,000
=Guadeloupe= (to France) | 688 | 182,000
=Hawaiian= See Sandwich. | |
=Isla de Pinos= (Isle of Pines) (to Spain) | 1,200 | 32,000
=Jamaica= (to Britain) | 4,200 | 865,000
=Long Island= (to U. S.) | 1,682 | 2,700,000
=Martinique= (to France) | 378 | 180,000
=New Foundland= (to Britain) | 42,734 | 218,000
=Porto Rico= (to U. S.) | 3,604 | 1,120,000
=Prince Edward= (to Britain) | 2,184 | 94,000
=Santo Domingo= (Independent) | 28,250 | 2,700,000
=Sandwich or Hawaiian= (to U. S.) | 6,449 | 192,000
=Staten Island= (to U. S.) | 65 | 86,000
=Tahiti= (to France) | 1,500 | 30,000
=Tierra del Fuego= (to Argentina) | 18,500 | 1,700
=Trinidad= (to Britain) | 1,750 | 350,000
=Vancouver= (to Britain) | 15,937 | 55,000
-------------------------------------------+--------+----------
[Illustration: =MAP SHOWING COMPARATIVE SIZE OF ISLANDS=
=ISLANDS OF EASTERN HEMISPHERE=]
=MOST NOTED ISLANDS OF THE WORLD--EASTERN HEMISPHERE=
-------------------------------------------+--------+----------
| =Area | =Popula-
=Name and Sovereignty= | Square | tion=
| Miles= |
-------------------------------------------+--------+----------
=Balearic Islands= (to Spain) | 1,935 | 326,000
=Borneo= (to Britain and Holland) |284,000 | 2,000,000
=Canary Islands= (to Spain) | 2,807 | 420,000
=Candia, or Crete= (to Turkey) | 3,365 | 243,000
=Cape Verde Islands= (to Portugal) | 1,480 | 148,000
=Celebes= (to Holland) | 71,470 | 2,000,000
=Ceylon= (to Britain) | 25,332 | 3,595,000
=Corsica= (to France) | 3,378 | 290,000
=Cyprus= (to Britain) | 3,584 | 140,000
=Elba= (to Italy) | 85 | 27,000
=England= (Independent) | 88,729 |40,835,000
=Formosa= (to Japan) | 13,458 | 3,392,000
=Gothland= (to Sweden) | 1,217 | 56,000
=Hainan= (to China) | 16,000 | 2,000,000
=Iceland= (to Denmark) | 39,756 | 86,000
=Ireland= (to Britain) | 32,360 | 4,382,000
{Honshiu | 87,485 |37,415,000
=Japan= {Khiushiu | 16,840 | 7,727,000
{Skikoku | 7,031 | 3,290,000
{Hokkaido (Yezo) | 36,299 | 1,140,000
=Java= (to Holland) | 50,554 |30,100,000
=Madagascar= (to France) |227,950 | 2,745,000
=Madeira Islands= (to Portugal) | 314 | 150,600
=Malta= (to Britain) | 117 | 229,000
=New Guinea= See Papua. | |
=New Zealand= {N. Island | 44,468 | 564,000
(to Britain) {S. Island | 58,325 | 445,000
=Papua, or New Guinea= (to Britain, | |
Germany and Holland) |313,183 | 710,000
{Luzon | 40,969 | 3,800,000
{Mindanao | 36,292 | 500,000
=Philippines= (to U. S.) {Panay | 4,611 | 744,000
{Cebu | 1,762 | 593,000
{Leyte | 2,722 | 358,000
=St. Helena= (to Britain) | 47 | 3,520
=Sakhalin= (Japan and Russia) | 29,000 | 30,000
=Sardinia= (to Italy) | 9,306 | 854,000
=Sicily= (to Italy) | 9,935 | 3,685,000
=Spitzbergen= (to Norway) | 27,000 | ...
=Sumatra= (to Holland) |165,000 | 3,200,000
=Van Diemen, or Tasmania= (to Britain) | 26,215 | 197,000
=Zanzibar= (to Britain) | 640 | 115,000
-------------------------------------------+--------+----------
[Illustration: =MARVELS OF THE EARTH’S ROTATION, FORCES AND STRUCTURE=
1. Midnight Sun Within the Arctic Circle. 2. The Geyser At Rest. 3.
Picture Diagram of a Section through a Volcano like Vesuvius. 4. The
Geyser in Action. 5. Section of the Earth’s Crust across France and
Italy.
1. Precambrian or Archaean. 2. Cambrian and Ordovician. 3. Silurian. 4.
Carboniferous Limestone. 5. Coal Measures. 6. Permian. 7. Trias. 8.
Jurassic. 9. Chalk. 10. Tertiary. 11. Volcanic Rocks. 12. Glacial
Deposits. 13. Granite. 14. Gneiss. 15. Schist. 16. Alluvium.]