CHAPTEE VII 



BOENEO 



1. G-eneral. 



If we consider Australia to be more properly a continent, 

 Borneo is undoubtedly the second island in the world in 

 point of magnitude, for New Guinea alone surpasses it. 

 Its extreme length is about 850 miles, and its greatest 

 breadth 600. Its compact mass is somewhat pear- 

 shaped, lying in a north-east and south-west direction. 

 It has a coast line of about 3000 miles, without measur- 

 ing the smaller bays and inlets, and its area is about 

 285,000 square miles, being nearly three and a half 

 times as large as Great Britain. 



Extending from 7° o' K to 4° 10' S. latitude, and being 

 nearly bisected by the Equator, Borneo occupies a central 

 position amid the greater Malay islands, being, roughly 

 speaking, equally distant from the Philippines on the 

 north-east, from Celebes on the east, from Java on the 

 south, and from Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula on the 

 west. It is thus removed from the violence of typhoons, 

 and enjoys on all its coasts a tolerably calm sea. There 

 are comparatively few islands around its shores, the most 

 important being the Natunas off the western promontory, 

 and Pulo Laut on the south-east ; but at the nortli-casl, 



