CHAPTEE VI 



SUMATEA 



1. General. 



Sumatra, the westernmost of all the Dutch Indian pos- 

 sessions, is one of the largest islands in the world, and 

 in the archipelago is surpassed in size only by New 

 Guinea and Borneo. Its extreme length is about 1060 

 miles, its greatest breadth 260, and its area, so far as an 

 insufficient survey can admit of its being calculated, 

 about 170,000 square miles. It lies with its long axis 

 in a X.W. and S.E. direction, and is traversed from north 

 to south by an almost unbroken chain of mountains, 

 many of which are volcanoes. This chain lies close to 

 the western shore, and hence the island may be roughly 

 described as presenting a high, steep wall, and straight, 

 almost harbourless coast-line, to the Indian Ocean, guarded 

 by an outlying chain of large islands ; while the eastern 

 portion, which goes to form the Strait of Malacca, is low, 

 flat, and alluvial, intersected with large rivers forming 

 great deltas, and consequently provided with numerous 

 harbours. At the south, Sumatra is separated from 

 Java by the great ocean highway known as the Straits 

 of Sunda, and memorable of late years as the site of the 

 appalling eruption of Krakatau. A considerable portion 



