vTHERE THE BASIN OF THE INDIAN OCEAN BEGINS. 485 



to the present sea-level, so is the long, narrow area 

 between these islands and Sumatra a plateau, when 

 compared with the bed of the unfathomable ocean 

 outside of them. In the same manner, then, as 

 the Kui^ile and Japan Islands, the Lew-Chews, and 

 Formosa, are but the more elevated parts of a great 

 mountain-chain that rises on the eastern edge of the 

 continent of Asia, so these islands are only the tops 

 of another great chain which rises on a part of the 

 southern border of the same continent, and indicates 

 where the wide and deep basin of the Indian Ocean 

 commences. 



