338 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



is a small map of the Nyanza district printed in blue and red. The 

 blue represents the actual state of things. The red represents the 

 same country as depicted in certain ancient Hindoo documents, first 

 published in Europe in 1801. It is impossible to look at them with- 

 out seeing that the Hindoos had excellent information upon the -geog- 

 raphy of the country. The same " Mountains of the Moon " is taken 

 from the Hindoo Map, and the situation of the mountains so-called is 

 laid down not incorrectly, while the lake-system of the country is rep- 

 resented, not by three lakes, but by one large one, which is called the 

 Lake of the Gods, and which might naturally be supposed to exist by 

 any one acquainted with the Nyanza. Captain Speke supposes that 

 in very ancient times there was a considerable trade between Hindo- 

 stan and the interior of Africa, and that this was the source from 

 which the authors of the map in question derived their information. 

 That they had such information somehow, no one who looks at the 

 two maps can possibly doubt. 



THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. 



The following is an abstract of a paper on the above topic, read be- 

 fore the British Association, 1863, by Mr. A. R. Wallace, well known 

 from his travels and natural history investigations in Southern Asia : 



It first becomes necessary to define accurately the limits of the Arch- 

 ipelago, pointing out exactly what islands we include within it; for, 

 though "all the islands between southeastern Asia and Australia" 

 seem pretty definite, yet to the eastward this region blends insensibly 

 into the vast extent of the Pacific Islands. According to my views, 

 the Malay or, as I should prefer to name it, the Indo- Australian 

 Archipelago extends from the Nicobar Islands on the northwest to St. 

 Christoval, one of the Solomon Islands, on the southeast, and from Lu- 

 zon on the north to Rotte, near Timor, on the south. The eastern 

 boundary is drawn at this particular point for reasons which will be 

 explained further on. Though not geographically correct to include 

 any part of a continent in an archipelago, it is necessary for our pur- 

 pose to consider the Malay peninsula as not only almost but quite an 

 island, since it cannot be physically separated from the region of which 

 we are now treating., Thus limited, the archipelago is of a somewhat 

 triangular form, with an extreme length of about 5,000, and breadth 

 of rather more than 2,000 English miles. The mere statement of 

 these dimensions, however, will give but an imperfect idea of the ex- 

 tent and geographical importance of this region, which, owing to its 

 peculiar position, is worse represented on maps than any other on the 

 globe. In many atlases of great pretension there is no map of the 

 whole archipelago. A small portion of it generally comes in with 

 Asia, and another piece with the Pacific Islands ; but in order to ascer- 

 tain its form and extent as a whole, we are almost always obliged to 

 turn to the map of the Eastern Hemisphere. It thus happens that, 

 seldom seeing this region, except on a diminutive scale, its real form 

 and dimensions, and the size, situations, and names of its component 

 islands, are, perhaps, less familiar to educated persons than those of an 

 other countries of equal importance. They can hardly bring them- 

 selves to imagine that this sea of islands is really in many respects com- 

 parable with the great continents of the earth. The traveller, how- 



