Of all the gods that divide the empire of the earth, Neptune rules over the widest realms. If a giant hand were to uproot the Andes and cast them into the sea, they would be engulfed in the abyss, and scarcely raise the general level of the waters. The South American Pampas, bounded on the north by tropical palm-trees, and on the south by wintry firs, are no doubt of magnificent dimensions, yet these vast deserts seem insignificant when compared with the boundless plains of earth-encircling ocean. Nay! a whole continent, even America or Asia, appears small against the immensity of the sea, which covers with its rolling waves nearly three-fourths of the entire surface of the globe. The length of all the coasts which form the boundary between sea and land can only be roughly estimated, for who has accurately measured the numberless windings of so many shores? The entire coast-line of deeply indented Europe and her larger isles measures about 21,600 miles, equal to the circumference of the earth; while the shores of compact Africa extend to a length of only 14,000 miles. The coasts of America measure about 45,000 miles, those of Asia 40,000, while those of Australia and Polynesia may safely be estimated at 16,000. Thus the entire coast-line of the globe amounts to about 136,000 miles, which it would take the best pedestrian to traverse from end to end. How different is the aspect of these shores, along which the ever-restless sea continually rises or falls! Here steep rock-walls tower up from the deep, while there a low sandy beach extends its flat profile as far as the eye can reach. While some coasts are scorched by the vertical sunbeam, others are perpetually blocked up with ice. Here the safe harbor bids welcome to the weather-beaten sailor, the lighthouse greets him from afar with friendly ray; the experienced pilot hastens to guide him to the port, and all along the smiling margin of the land rise the peaceful dwellings of civilized man. There, on the contrary, the roaring breakers burst upon the shore of some dreary wilderness, the domain of the savage or the brute. What a wonderful variety of scenes unrolls itself before our fancy as it roams along the coasts of ocean from zone to zone! What changes, as it wanders from the palm-girt coral island of the tropical seas to the melancholy strands where, verging toward the poles, all vegetable life expires! And how magnificently grand does the idea of ocean swell out in our imagination, when we consider that its various shores witness at one and the same time the rising and setting of the sun, the darkness of night and the full blaze of day, the rigor of winter and the smiling cheerfulness of spring!