Canada is the northernmost country in North America and shares a border with the contiguous US to the south. The journey kicks off in Boston, one of the oldest cities in America, and ends in Washington, D.
Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. Press ESC to cancel. Although no factual evidence would prove that this strategy of exploration was actually employed by Polynesian navigators, the strategy would have been obvious to anyone familiar with sailing.
So one evening when the full moon was shining invitingly, being large and half visible at the horizon, she set off in her canoe to make it a visit. Whatever the motives and methods of exploration and discovery, once the location of an island was known, it became open to settlement. The migration began before the birth of Christ. While Europeans were sailing close to the coastlines of continents before developing navigational instruments that would allow them to venture onto the open ocean, voyagers from Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa began to settle islands in an ocean area of over 10 million square miles.
The settlement took a thousand years to complete and involved finding and fixing in mind the position of islands, sometimes less than a mile in diameter on which the highest landmark was a coconut tree. By the time European explorers entered the Pacific Ocean in the 16th century almost all the habitable islands had been settled for hundreds of years.
The voyaging was all the more remarkable in that it was done in canoes built with tools of stone, bone, and coral. The canoes were navigated without instruments by expert seafarers who depended on their observations of the ocean and sky and traditional knowledge of the patterns of nature for clues to the direction and location of islands.
The canoe hulls were dug out from tree trunks with adzes or made from planks sewn together with a cordage of coconut fiber twisted into strands and braided for strength. Cracks and seams were sealed with coconut fibers and sap from breadfruit or other trees.
An outrigger was attached to a single hull for greater stability on the ocean; two hulls were lashed together with crossbeams and a deck added between the hulls to create double canoes capable of voyaging long distances. The canoes were paddled when there was no wind and sailed when there was; the sails were woven from coconut or pandanus leaves. II, The voyaging was by no means easy. There was always a danger of swamping or capsizing in heavy seas, of having sails ripped apart or masts and booms broken by fierce winds, of smashing the hulls against unseen rocks or reefs; and while there were grass or leaf shelters on the decks of voyaging canoes, the voyagers were often exposed to the wind, rain, and sun, with only capes of leaves or bark-cloth wrappings for protection.
A stormy night at sea, even in the tropics, can be brutally chilling. If supplies ran short during a long voyage, and no fish or rainwater replenished them, then starvation became a possibility. One hundred of the paddlers died; forty men remained.
A long voyage was not just a physical, but a mental challenge as well, particularly for a navigator without compass or chart. To navigate miles of open ocean required an extensive and intimate knowledge of the ocean and sky.
Captain Cook noted that Polynesian navigators used the rising and setting points of celestial bodies for directions. Andia y Varela was told how Tahitians also used the winds and swells to hold a course:. One of these sailing masters named Puhoro came to Lima on this occasion in the frigate; and from him and others I was able to find out the method by which they navigate on the high seas.
When setting out from port the helmsman partitions the horizon, counting from E, or the point where the sun rises; he knows the direction in which his destination bears. He observes, also, whether he has the wind aft, or on one or the other beam, or on the quarter, or is close-hauled.
He notes, further, whether there is a following sea, a head sea, a beam sea, or if the sea is on the bow or the quarter. He proceeds out of port with a knowledge of these [conditions], heads his vessel according to his calculation, and aided by the signs the sea and wind afford him, does his best to keep steadily on his course.
The task becomes more difficult if the day is cloudy, because the sailing-master has no mark to count from for dividing the horizon.
Coconut plantations cover the motu islet of the coral barrier reef. There are 14 Gambier islands in the South Pacific, the largest being Mangareva. Located miles 1,km away from Papeete, they offer the traveler a trip of a lifetime. Lizard species include the goanna, skink, and bearded dragon.
Australia and Oceania has more than a hundred different species of fruit bats. The few native land animals in Australia and Oceania are unusual. Australia and Oceania is the only place in the world that is home to monotreme s—mammals that lay eggs. All monotremes are native to Australia and Papua New Guinea. There are only five living species: the duckbill platypus and four species of echidna. Many of the most familiar animals native to Australia and Oceania are marsupial s, including the koala, kangaroo, and wallaby.
Marsupials are mammals that carry their newborn young in a pouch. Almost 70 percent of the marsupials on Earth are native to Oceania. The rest are native to the Americas. In Australia and Oceania, marsupials did not face threats or competition from large predator s such as lions, tigers, or bears. In the Americas, marsupials such as possums are much smaller.
Marine Flora and Fauna The marine environment is an important and influential physical region in Australia and Oceania. Marine realm s are large ocean regions where animal and plant life are similar because of shared environmental and evolutionary factors. The Temperate Australasia realm includes the seas surrounding the southern half of Australia and the islands of New Zealand.
Its cold, nutrient -rich waters support a diversity of plants and fish that seabirds feed on. These seabirds include different species of albatross, petrel, and shearwater, as well as the Australasian gannet and rockhopper penguin.
The Great Barrier Reef is home to 30 species of whales, dolphins, and porpoises; six species of sea turtles; species of birds; and more than 1, species of fish. The New Caledonia Barrier Reef is home to species of sponges, 5, species of mollusks, 5, species of crustaceans, and at least 1, species of fish. The Eastern Indo-Pacific realm surrounds the tropical islands of the central Pacific Ocean, extending from the Marshall Islands through central and southeastern Polynesia.
Like the Central Indo-Pacific realm, this realm is also known for its tropical coral formations. A variety of whale, tortoise, and fish species also inhabit this realm. Australia and Oceania is a continent made up of thousands of islands throughout the South Pacific Ocean. Sea level is determined by measurements taken over a year cycle. Zealandia is almost totally underwater.
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