CHAPTEK VIII 



CELEBES 



1. General. 



Celebes is the fourth island in magnitude in the Eastern 

 Archipelago, being surpassed only by Xew Guinea, 

 Borneo, and Sumatra. It has Borneo — from which it is 

 separated by the JNIakassar Strait — on the west, and the 

 scattered islands of the Moluccas on the east. On the 

 north it is washed by the Celebes Sea, which intervenes 

 between it and the Philippines, while to the south an 

 island-dotted stretch of ocean of no great depth- — the 

 Flores Sea — separates it from the island of that name 

 and others of the Sunda chain. It thus occupies a 

 position midway between the great IMalay islands on the 

 one hand and the Papuan group on the other, belonging, 

 as will be seen, to neither of these divisions, but exhibit- 

 ing zoological and other peculiarities of a most marked 

 and interesting nature, which serve to isolate it in a 

 remarkable manner from every other island in the 

 archipelago. 



In shape Celebes is one of the most fantastic and 

 curious islands in the world, although Gilolo to the east- 

 ward seems almost a replica upon a smaller scale, and 

 Borneo, as has already been mentioned, must in former 



