TRUE VOLCANOES. 369 



Here at Formosa (N. lat. 25 26) is the important 

 point where, instead of the lines of elevation from N.E. 

 to S.W. those in the direction from north to south com- 

 mence, and continue nearly as far as the parallel of 5 or 6 

 of southern latitude. They are recognizable in Formosa 

 and in the Philippines (Luzon and Mindanao) over a space 

 of fully twenty degrees of latitude, intersecting the coasts, 

 sometimes on one side and sometimes on both, in the direc- 

 tion of the meridian. They are likewise visible on the east 

 coast of the great island of Borneo, which is connected by 

 the So-lo Archipelago with Mindanao, and by the long 

 narrow island of Palawan with Mindoro. So also in the 

 western portions of the Celebes, with their varied outline, 

 and Gilolo, and lastly (which is especially remarkable) in 

 the longitudinal fissures on which, at a distance of 1400 

 geographical miles eastward of the group of the Philippines 

 and in the same latitude, the range of volcanic and coral 

 islands of Marian or the Ladrones have been upheaved. 

 Their general direction 62 is north and 10 east. 



Having pointed out in the parallel of the carboniferous 

 island of Formosa, the turning point at which the direction 

 of the Kuriles from N.E. to S.W. is changed to that from 

 north to south, I must now observe that a new system of 

 fissures commences to the south of Celebes and the south 

 coasts of Borneo, which, as we have already seen, is cut 

 from east to west. The greater and lesser Sunda islands, 

 from Timor-lant to West-Bali, follow chiefly for the space 

 of 18 of longitude, the mean parallel of 8 south lati- 

 tude. At the western extremity of Java the mean axis 

 runs somewhat more towards the north, nearly E.S.E. and 

 W.N.W., while from the Strait of Sunda to the southern- 

 most of the Nicobar Isles the direction is from S.E. to 

 N.W. The whole volcanic fissure of elevation (E. to \V. 

 and S.E. to N.W.), has consequently an extent of about 

 2700 geographical miles, or eleven times the length of the 



82 Dana, Geoloyy of the Pacific Ocean, p. 16. Corresponding with 

 the meridian lines of the south-east Asiatic island-world, the shore* 

 of Cochin-China from the gulph of Tonquiu, those of Malacca from 

 the gulph of Siam, and even those of New Holland south of the 25th 

 degree of lat., are for the most part cut off as it were in the directioa 

 from north to south. 



VOL. V. 2 B 



