SUMATRA 159 



heights have been estimated at over 11,100 and 12,100 

 feet respectively, and if these be correct there is no doubt 

 that Luse is the highest peak in Sumatra. A little 

 farther to the south the main range forks, and at this 

 point is the most important of the mountain lakes of 

 Sumatra, many of which, it may be remarked, are formed 

 in extinct craters. This sheet of water, known as Lake 

 Toba, is of considerable size, being 45 miles in length 

 and 15 in breadth, and is occupied in the centre by a 

 large insuloid mass of land which is joined to the shore 

 by the narrowest possible connection. This lake thus 

 resembles very closely Lake Taal in the Philippines, for 

 the central island, if we may so term it, although not 

 now active, is, like that of Taal, a volcano, and the narrow 

 connecting causeway has been formed by ashes ejected 

 from its crater. The shores of Lake Toba are thickly 

 populated by Battaks, among whom the Dutch are re- 

 presented by a " Controleur." Almost on the equator 

 is Mount Ophir (9610 feet), the isolated position and 

 fine outline of which render it a well-known object to 

 seamen. It is a volcano, but is now extinct. Merapi, 

 the next peak of any importance, is very far from being 

 so, and its eruptions have been more numerous than 

 those of any other Sumatran volcano — at all events 

 during the present century, a fact which partly explains 

 its Malay name, the Fire Destroyer. Although by no 

 means the loftiest mountain in the chain, the Malays 

 have adapted a form of the story of the ark to it, and 

 regard it as their Ararat. 



During the Central Sumatran Expedition of 1877, 

 Mr. Veth ascended the Talang and Korinchi or Indra- 

 pura volcanoes. The former, which is 8343 feet in 

 height, dominates the city of Padang, and although now 

 inactive, affords the natives an inexhaustible store of 



