202 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL 



or 20 miles — well known to navigators as the Bangka 

 Strait and as the chief highway for all shipping passing 

 between the great islands of Borneo and Sumatra. 

 Bangka is 138 miles in length, and has an area of nearly 

 5000 square miles. It is comparatively sterile, is full of 

 small valleys and swamps, and is everywhere covered with 

 thick forest. Its surface is rugged and irregular, and a 

 series of high hills not disposed in ranges runs through its 

 whole length, parallel with and of similar character to those 

 of the Malay Peninsula. The greatest heights attained 

 are those of Mount Maras, 2760 feet, and the Parmasang 

 JNIountains, 1608 feet, but it is remarkable that, notwith- 

 standing their low elevation, the summits of these hills 

 are generally covered with clouds, which has caused their 

 height to be much over-estimated by some writers. 



Like the islands of the lihio-Lingga Archipelago, and 

 like its near neighbour Blitong, Bangka is Peninsular in 

 its affinities, not Sumatran. The formation is principally 

 granitic, and in situations of less elevation there occurs 

 the red ironstone clay (laterite) which forms so marked a 

 feature of the landscape in Singapore and Ceylon. In 

 the lowest lands is an alluvial formation, intermixed with 

 sandstones and breccias, in which is found the tin for 

 which the island is famous. Zoology bears out the 

 evidences afforded by geology. Although so near Sumatra, 

 all the large Carnivora are absent, except the Malay bear, 

 and neither the elephant, rhinoceros, nor tapir exist. 

 More remarkable is the occurrence of numerous peculiar 

 species of birds and a squirrel, which differ from those of 

 Sumatra and Borneo sometimes more than the species of 

 those islands differ from each other. There is therefore 

 every reason to suppose that Bangka was once a southern 

 extension of the Malay Peninsula, from which it has been 

 isolated by subsidence of the intervening land. The 



