MALAYSIA, OR THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO 



CHAPTEK H 



GENERAL FEATURES 



1. Geographical Outline. 



Of all the great island groups of the globe, the richest in 

 every respect is the ]\Ialay Archipelago, lying between 

 Southern Asia and Australia, and made up of fragments 

 of the two continents, although now forming a distinct 

 geographical unit. There is every reason to believe that 

 Asia and Australia were united during the latter part of 

 the Secondary epoch, while the processes of subsidence 

 and upheaval resulting in the present insular formations 

 were not fully developed till a much later period. The 

 Australian continent was probably first broken up, as 

 indicated by the very deep seas which now separate the 

 several islands of the Moluccas from each other; while 

 the Asiatic continent may have remained longer entire, 

 and its comparatively recent subsidence is equally well 

 shown by the very shallow sea — always under fifty fathoms 

 deep — which separates the great islands of Java, Sumatra, 

 and Borneo from each other and from the mainland of 

 Southern Asia. The extensive submarine plateau comes 



