Asia
the largest of the land divisions of the world, occupies the northern portion of the Eastern Hemisphere in the form of a massive continent, which extends beyond the Arctic circle, and by its southern peninsulas nearly reaches the equator. The origin of its name remains unknown. Europe and Asia constitute but one continent, extending from W. to E., and having the shape of an immense triangle, the angles of which are Spain in the W., the peninsula of the Tchuktchis in the N. E., and that of Malacca in the S. E. The Arctic Ocean in the N., the Pacific in the E., and the Indian Ocean, continued by its narrow gulf, the Red Sea, which nearly reaches the Mediterranean, inclose the continent of Asia. The area covered by Asia and its islands is 17,255,890 square miles; that is, almost exactly one-third of the land surface of the globe (32 per cent). Geographically speaking, Europe is a mere appendix to Asia, As and no exact geographical delimitation of the two continents is possible.
Peninsulas. - Asia has one mile of coastline for every 337 square miles of its area; that is, three times less than Europe; besides one-fifth of its shores is washed by the ice-bound Arctic Ocean (9,900 miles out of 51,000), or by the foggy and icy Sea of Okhotsk. Its peninsulas comprise nearly one-fifth of its surface. Three immense offsets continue latitudes, Arabia, India, and the Indothe continent of Asia into more tropical Chinese peninsula, and some likeness exists between them and the three southern peninsulas of Europe, Spain, Italy, and the Balkan peninsula, surrounded by its archipelago of hundreds of islands. Asia Minor protrudes between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean as a huge mass of table-land, broken by narrow gulfs in its western