326 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TllAVEL 



any other in the whole archipelago. It contains a great 

 variety of surface and of soil, abundance of large and 

 small streams, some of which are navigable, alluvial 

 plains, abrupt hills and lofty mountains, and a grand and 

 luxuriant forest vegetation. Moreover, having no savage 

 inhabitants, every part of it can be visited with safety. 

 The other islands of this group are practically unin- 

 habited. 



Obi Major, the chief of the Obi group, is a fine 

 island about 45 miles in length by 20 in breadth. 

 The mountains of the interior reach a height of 5000 

 feet or more, but appear to be clothed with forest to their 

 summits, as, indeed, is the whole island. It is well- 

 watered, and is apparently both fertile and healthy. Yet, 

 strangely enough, the group is totally uninhabited, the 

 only instance of the kind in the whole of the archipelago, 

 and this, too, in spite of its central position. Now and 

 then it is visited by fishermen from Batjan, who build 

 huts and occupy themselves in curing fish or catching 

 turtle ; but no permanent settlement exists, and it does 

 not appear that any people of Papuan race ever estab- 

 lished themselves here, as was the case in Halmahera to 

 the north, and probably in Ceram to the south. Among 

 the Ternate natives Obi bears the reputation of being 

 haunted, which may perhaps account for the absence of 

 population. It was inhabited in former times, and Dr. 

 Guillemard found old sago and nutmeg plantations on 

 the western side of the island, where are the ruins of 

 an ancient Dutch fort. Obi is probably in no part 

 volcanic, but appears to be composed of the older 

 crystalline rocks. Coal and lignite exist, and probably 

 gold, but no explorations have been made, and the existing 

 charts of the island are extremely inaccurate. 



