The Malay Archipelago, vol 1 | Page 6

description of my travels and residence
in the several islands I shall have to refer continually to this view, and
adduce facts in support of it, I have thought it advisable to commence
with a general sketch of the main features of the Malayan region as will
render the facts hereafter brought forward more interesting, and their
bearing upon the general question more easily understood. I proceed,
therefore, to sketch the limits and extent of the Archipelago, and to
point out the more striking features of its geology, physical geography,
vegetation, and animal life.
Definition and Boundaries.--For reasons which depend mainly on the
distribution of animal life, I consider the Malay Archipelago to include
the Malay Peninsula as far as Tenasserim and the Nicobar Islands on
the west, the Philippines on the north, and the Solomon Islands, beyond

New Guinea, on the east. All the great islands included within these
limits are connected together by innumerable smaller ones, so that no
one of them seems to be distinctly separated from the rest. With but
few exceptions all enjoy an uniform and very similar climate, and are
covered with a luxuriant forest vegetation. Whether we study their form
and distribution on maps, or actually travel from island to island, our
first impression will be that they form a connected whole, all the parts
of which are intimately related to each other.
Extent of the Archipelago and Islands.--The Malay Archipelago
extends for more than 4,000 miles in length from east to west, and is
about 1,300 in breadth from north to south. It would stretch over an
expanse equal to that of all Europe from the extreme west far into
Central Asia, or would cover the widest parts of South America, and
extend far beyond the land into the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. It
includes three islands larger than Great Britain; and in one of them,
Borneo, the whole of the British Isles might be set down, and would be
surrounded by a sea of forests. New Guinea, though less compact in
shape, is probably larger than Borneo. Sumatra is about equal in extent
to Great Britain; Java, Luzon, and Celebes are each about the size of
Ireland. Eighteen more islands are, on the average, as large as Jamaica;
more than a hundred are as large as the Isle of Wight; while the isles
and islets of smaller size are innumerable.
The absolute extent of land in the Archipelago is not greater than that
contained by Western Europe from Hungary to Spain; but, owing to the
manner in which the land is broken up and divided, the variety of its
productions is rather in proportion to the immense surface over which
the islands are spread, than to the quantity of land which they contain.
Geological Contrasts.--One of the chief volcanic belts upon the globe
passes through the Archipelago, and produces a striking contrast in the
scenery of the volcanic and non-volcanic islands. A curving line,
marked out by scores of active, and hundreds of extinct, volcanoes may
be traced through the whole length of Sumatra and Java, and thence by
the islands of Bali, Lombock, Sumbawa, Flores, the Serwatty Islands,
Banda, Amboyna, Batchian, Makian, Tidore, Ternate, and Gilolo, to

Morty Island. Here there is a slight but well-marked break, or shift, of
about 200 miles to the westward, where the volcanic belt begins again
in North Celebes, and passes by Sian and Sanguir to the Philippine
Islands along the eastern side of which it continues, in a curving line, to
their northern extremity. From the extreme eastern bend of this belt at
Banda, we pass onwards for 1,000 miles over a non- volcanic district to
the volcanoes observed by Dampier, in 1699, on the north-eastern coast
of New Guinea, and can there trace another volcanic belt through New
Britain, New Ireland, and the Solomon Islands, to the eastern limits of
the Archipelago.
In the whole region occupied by this vast line of volcanoes, and for a
considerable breadth on each side of it, earthquakes are of continual
recurrence, slight shocks being felt at intervals of every few weeks or
months, while more severe ones, shaking down whole villages, and
doing more or less injury to life and property, are sure to happen, in one
part or another of this district, almost every year. On many of the
islands the years of the great earthquakes form the chronological
epochs of the native inhabitants, by the aid of which the ages of their
children are remembered, and the dates of many important events are
determined.
I can only briefly allude to the many fearful eruptions that have taken
place in this region. In the amount of injury to life and property, and in
the magnitude of their effects, they have not been surpassed by any
upon