156 



ELEMENTS OF SCIENCE 



The distribution of dry land is thus most irregular, 

 as also is the degree to which the shape of any large 

 portion of land is varied by deep indentations in, and 

 far-reaching prolongations from, its shores. 



Besides the British Isles and Iceland, those islands 

 most desirable here to note (with a view to succeeding 

 chapters) are Ceylon, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes, 

 the Philippine and Japan Islands; the small islands 

 Bali, Lambok, and Timor ; Madagascar, with its distant 

 outliers, Mauritius and Bourbon all in the Indian 

 Ocean ; the Canaries, the Cape de Verde Islands, Ascen- 



FIG. 23. 



sion, and St. Helena ; the West Indian Islands and 

 Trinidad all in the Atlantic Ocean; the Galapagos, 

 Sandwich, and Society Islands, Fiji, New Caledonia, the 

 Solomon Islands ; New Zealand, New Guinea all in 

 the Pacific Ocean ; and finally the Moluccas and Aru 

 Islands, and Tasmania, which last, as it were, prolongs 

 Australia to the south. Some of these are noteworthy 

 as being separated by very deep water from land adjacent, 

 while others are remarkable as rising in groups from a 

 surface but little submerged, and separated by no great 

 depth from an adjacent continent, 



