SUMATKA 173 



To the great alluvial plain which occupies the entire 

 eastern portion of Sumatra allusion has already been 

 made. It is about 700 miles in length, and from 50 to 

 200 in breadth, and in area is equal to England. It is 

 intersected with large and navigable rivers, by means of 

 which trade is carried on almost to the opposite shores 

 of the island. Much of it is flooded in the rainy season, 

 and, with the rare exception of a few cultivated patches 

 on the river banks, it is covered with a stupendous forest, 

 coeval probably with the formation of the land itself. 

 The greater part of this vast territory is of ample fertility, 

 and suited to the growth of most of the products of 

 tropical countries, but much of it is in the hands of rude 

 tribes who are quite unable efiectually to cultivate it. 



Like Luzon, the great island of the Philippines, 

 Sumatra abounds in lakes. But while in the former 

 these are for the most part either inlets of the sea shut 

 off by upheaval or by volcanic ejecta, or the temporary 

 sheets of water occurring during the rainy season and 

 known as Pinags, those of Sumatra are chiefly mountain 

 lakes, many of which occupy the craters of extinct 

 volcanoes. The largest of them is the Toba Lake in the 

 Battak country (see p. 159), and although no others 

 approach its area of nearly 500 square miles, there are 

 several of considerable size. Lakes Singkara and INIaninju, 

 near Padang, are each about 12 or 13 miles in length 

 by 3 or 4 in breadth. The latter is fed by thermal 

 springs which are much used for their curative powers 

 by the natives. The Danau or Ranau Lake (Danau 

 signifying lake in the Malay and other allied languages) 

 is of similar nature. It was visited in 1881 by Mr. 

 H. 0. Forbes, who describes it as appearing to occupy 

 the site of an old crater at the foot of the Siminung 

 volcano. It is about 12 miles in length, and is of ver}' 



