18 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 



one portion of the region where there appears to iDe a 

 natural deficiency of forest, due to pecuharities of climate 

 caused by the vicinity of the heated interior of Australia. 

 From the east end of Java throughout the Lesser Sunda 

 Archipelago to Timor Laut, the dense forests which 

 everywhere cover the other islands are the exception 

 rather than the rule, occurring only in valleys and on 

 the moister slopes of the mountains. The country for 

 the most part consists of grassy plains, dotted with palms 

 and thorny bushes, which latter often form dense and 

 impenetrable thickets. During the prevalence of the 

 south-east monsoon, from April to October, scarcely any 

 rain falls in this area, and towards the latter end of this 

 dry season the drought is so great that many small 

 streams dry up, and most of the trees lose their leaves. 

 The heat is then intense ; and were it not that the 

 nights are cool and a breeze always blowing, the climate 

 w^ould approach in severity that of Central Australia. 

 As it is, the chief effect of this long-continued dryness of 

 the atmosphere is that it is inimical to that luxuriant 

 forest growth which elsewhere in the equatorial zones 

 clothes the earth with perennial verdure, and affords a 

 constant protection from the rays of the vertical sun. 

 The only other parts of the archipelago where any extent of 

 open country occurs are in Northern Borneo, in Southern 

 Celebes, and some of the Philippine Islands, but in these 

 cases it is probably due to human agency aided by the 

 introduction of cattle which have become wild. The 

 densely peopled plains of Java and the elevated plateaus 

 of Sumatra are highly cultivated, and have been so long 

 the seat of an ancient civilisation that the absence 

 of forest is clearly not to be considered a natural 

 feature. 



