THE MALAYAN ARCHIPELAGO. 91 



forming what is comprehended under the name of the Australian 

 volcanic chain. L. v. Buch years ago pointed out that the long 

 band of Asiatic volcanoes marks off the natural boundary of the 

 Asiatic continent, and this view seems more natural than that 

 of the Bali-Lombok line of Wallace/^^ based on the peculiar 

 distribution of the higher animals. Wallace himself particularly 

 calls attention to the fact that his division of the Archipelago 

 into two regions, characterised by a striking diversity in the 

 natural productions of the islands does not correspond to any 

 of the physical divisions of their surface. The volcanic chain 

 runs through both regions, and geologically they are inseparable. 



Looking more into the details of the special position of the 

 Banda volcanoes, which is our immediate subject, we are con- 

 fronted with difficulties in tracing out the tectonic lines of the 

 region, and the views of geologists are by no means in accord. 

 C Naumann^*^^ declines to admit the existence of an independent 

 chain here, but sees in the volcanic island of Nila the intersecting 

 point of his middle system, that is, of his Formosa-Nila band with 

 the Sunda chain. Junghuhn,"'^ on the contrary, imagines the 

 Banda series to be a prolongation of Timor, which when be 

 wrote was supposed to be volcanic. 



According to Wichmann,"^^ the great volcanic band of the 

 Sunda Islands terminates in Panter, since the easterly islands, 

 inclusive of Wetter, carry no volcanic cones. Wetter being for the 

 greater part built up of Paheozoic and Mesozoic beds. With 

 Roma begins a new system, followed by Dammer, Tiow, Nila, 



19) Journal Royal Geogr. See, 1863, p. 231. 



20) Loc. cit. (18). 



21) 'Java' Bd. II, Leipzig, p. 834. 



22) ' Gesteine von der Insel Kisser ', Beiträge zur Geologie von Oslasien, Bd. II, Leiden, 

 1887, p. 197. 



