TIIK MOLUCCAS .".O!) 



and the rocks, so far as observed, appear to be ancient 

 stratified deposits of a highly crystalline character, thougli 

 limestone occurs at its eastern extremity. The great 

 central mountain, Nusa Heli, is said to be nearly 10,000 

 feet high, but no European has ever visited it. 



The vegetation of the Moluccas is exceedingly rich 

 and varied, and would well repay systematic exploration. 

 Here is the native country of the most precious of spices, 

 the clove ; and here are also wild nutmegs, cardamoms, 

 the kanari nut, and the cajuput-oil tree. Palms and 

 pandani are very abundant, dammar pines grow in the 

 forests, while ferns, creepers, and flowering shrubs in end- 

 less variety clothe the forest glades and the rocky beaches 

 with exquisite drapery. 



The animal life is much better known, and enables 

 us to decide that it belongs generally to the Australian 

 type, and more particularly resembles the fauna of New 

 Guinea. A few of the Asiatic forms of mammaha, re- 

 sembling those of the western islands, are still found 

 here ; such as the deer, which abounds in all the larger 

 islands, and even in several of the smaller ones, since 

 it occurs in Ternate and Tidor, in Banda, and in Ceram 

 Laut. The species is almost, if not quite, identical with 

 one common in all the great Malay islands, and it may 

 very well have been introduced by the Llalay colonists. 

 None of the islands have any monkeys, except Batjan, in 

 which is found the tailless baboon-ape of Celebes ; while 

 in Buru alone is found the babirusa, another of the 

 peculiar forms of that island. Both of these are con- 

 sidered by Mr. Wallace to liave been introduced by 

 human agency. Pigs are abundant in all the islands, 

 and some of them are Ijelieved to be peculiar species. 

 The only carnivorous animal is the common civet-cat 

 ( Vivcrra tangalnnga) ; and as the Malays often keep 



