Lana Moss, age 12, of Glendennin, West Virginia

Which are the Seven Seas?

It is believed that this expression came from a legend of ancient India. People of olden days had no idea of the world as a globe and they invented various theories to explain tire earth, This Indian legend said that the world was divided into seven land masses and seven seas. Sailors used the expression Seven Seas to mean all the ocean‑waters of the world.

Later, some effort was made to fit this expression to the known facts. The Seven Seas were taken to mean the North Atlantic, the South Atlantic, the Indian Ocean, the Arctic Ocean, the North Pacific, the South Pacific and the Antarctic waters that swirl around the continent of Antarctica,

Actually, of course, there is no clear‑cut division between the north and south Pacific' or the North and South Atlantic. Both these oceans as well as the Indian Ocean touch the eaters of Antarctica. In fact, if you study a map of the world in your beautiful gift atlas, you will see that all the seas of the world are connected.