The Malay Archipelago, vol 1 | Page 8

earthquakes,
so characteristic of the surrounding regions, are entirely unknown. The
equally large island of New Guinea occupies another quiescent area, on
which no sign of volcanic action has yet been discovered. With the
exception of the eastern end of its northern peninsula, the large and
curiously-shaped island of Celebes is also entirely free from volcanoes;
and there is some reason to believe that the volcanic portion has once
formed a separate island. The Malay Peninsula is also non-volcanic.
The first and most obvious division of the Archipelago would therefore
be into quiescent and volcanic regions, and it might, perhaps, be
expected that such a division would correspond to some differences in

the character of the vegetation and the forms of life. This is the case,
however, to a very limited extent; and we shall presently see that,
although this development of subterranean fires is on so vast a
scale--has piled up chains of mountains ten or twelve thousand feet
high--has broken up continents and raised up islands from the
ocean--yet it has all the character of a recent action which has not yet
succeeded in obliterating the traces of a more ancient distribution of
land and water.
Contrasts of Vegetation.--Placed immediately upon the Equator and
surrounded by extensive oceans, it is not surprising that the various
islands of the Archipelago should be almost always clothed with a
forest vegetation from the level of the sea to the summits of the loftiest
mountains. This is the general rule. Sumatra, New Guinea, Borneo, the
Philippines and the Moluccas, and the uncultivated parts of Java and
Celebes, are all forest countries, except a few small and unimportant
tracts, due perhaps, in some cases, to ancient cultivation or accidental
fires. To this, however, there is one important exception in the island of
Timor and all the smaller islands around it, in which there is absolutely
no forest such as exists in the other islands, and this character extends
in a lesser degree to Flores, Sumbawa, Lombock, and Bali.
In Timor the most common trees are Eucalypti of several species, also
characteristic of Australia, with sandalwood, acacia, and other sorts in
less abundance. These are scattered over the country more or less
thickly, but, never so as to deserve the name of a forest. Coarse and
scanty grasses grow beneath them on the more barren hills, and a
luxuriant herbage in the moister localities. In the islands between
Timor and Java there is often a more thickly wooded country
abounding in thorny and prickly trees. These seldom reach any great
height, and during the force of the dry season they almost completely
lose their leaves, allowing the ground beneath them to be parched up,
and contrasting strongly with the damp, gloomy, ever-verdant forests of
the other islands. This peculiar character, which extends in a less
degree to the southern peninsula of Celebes and the east end of Java, is
most probably owing to the proximity of Australia. The south-east
monsoon, which lasts for about two-thirds of the year (from March to

November), blowing over the northern parts of that country, produces a
degree of heat and dryness which assimilates the vegetation and
physical aspect of the adjacent islands to its own. A little further
eastward in Timor and the Ke Islands, a moister climate prevails; the
southeast winds blowing from the Pacific through Torres Straits and
over the damp forests of New Guinea, and as a consequence, every
rocky islet is clothed with verdure to its very summit. Further west
again, as the same dry winds blow over a wider and wider extent of
ocean, they have time to absorb fresh moisture, and we accordingly
find the island of Java possessing a less and less arid climate, until in
the extreme west near Batavia, rain occurs more or less all the year
round, and the mountains are everywhere clothed with forests of
unexampled luxuriance.
Contrasts in Depth of Sea.--It was first pointed out by Mr. George
Windsor Earl, in a paper read before the Royal Geographical Society in
1845, and subsequently in a pamphlet "On the Physical Geography of
South-Eastern Asia and Australia", dated 1855, that a shallow sea
connected the great islands of Sumatra, Java, and Borneo with the
Asiatic continent, with which their natural productions generally agreed;
while a similar shallow sea connected New Guinea and some of the
adjacent islands to Australia, all being characterised by the presence of
marsupials.
We have here a clue to the most radical contrast in the Archipelago,
and by following it out in detail I have arrived at the conclusion that we
can draw a line among the islands, which shall so divide them that
one-half shall truly belong to Asia, while the other shall no less
certainly be allied to Australia. I term these respectively the