82 AUSTRALASIA. 



the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Barisan Mountains, as the Sumatran 

 ranges are collectively called, beg-in to the north of Atjeb with the islet of Pulo 

 Brass (2,300 feet), on which has been erected the beacon known to mariners as the 

 "Sumatra Lighthouse." Eastwards stands the insular mass of Pulo Wai (1,370 

 feet), beyond which on the mainland rises the volcanic Selawa Janteu (5,650 feet), 

 known to the Dutch as the Goudberg, or " Gold Mountain." This 'imposing and 

 almost completely isolated cone is followed along the north coast by other crests, 

 for the most part less elevated, and indicating the border of the still unexplored 

 Achinese plateau. The range terminates near Diamond Cape (Jarabu Ajer) in a 

 Tafelberg, or Table Mountain, whose highest terrace stands at an altitude of 5,300 

 feet above the sea. Beyond the hills on the coast is seen the summit, 4,000 feet 

 high, of the still unvisited Samalanga volcano. 



But the main range, which has its origin to the west of the Goudberg and of 

 the Atjeh valley, develops a much loftier series of crests along the oceanic 

 seaboard. Here the Abong-Abong and Luseh, said to be volcanoes but not yet 

 explored, are reported to attain the respective elevations of 11,300 and 12,200 

 feet. 



South of these lofty summits, whose cones rest on a crystalline formation some 

 3,000 or 4,000 feet high, the mean altitude of the highlands is considerably 

 reduced, and here the s^-stera branches into parallel chains enclosing the Toba 

 plateau, and tao, or " sea," of like name. This basin, called also Silalahi, forms a 

 lake of clear water 500 square miles in extent, whose shores are studded with 

 hundreds of Batta villages. In its waters are mirrored the cones of extinct or 

 still active volcanoes, one of which, tbe Dolok Simanabum, emitted dense vapours 

 in 1881. On its flanks, as well as on those of a neighbouring volcano, may be 

 distinguished from below a broad belt of a golden colour, consisting probably of 

 crj'stallised sulphur. The Pusuk Bukit, another cone on the western margin of 

 the lake, also possesses extensive sulphur deposits, whence the Battas draw their 

 supplies. The island rising in the centre of tbe basin was itself a volcano, Avhicb 

 has been attached by eruptive scoriae to the mainland and to the Pusuk Bukit. 

 Lake Toba stretches in the direction from north-west to south-east, parallel with 

 the main Sumatran axis. Its overflow is discharged to the south-east, towards 

 the strait of Malacca. 



The amphitheatre of hills, whose spurs branch off towards the east coast, again 

 converges south of the Toba plateau in a single main range, which resumes its 

 normal direction parallel with the west Sumatran seaboard. In this part of the 

 Barisan highlands some volcanic or other peaks exceed 5,000 feet in height. 

 From one of the cones are emitted wreaths of sulphurous vapours, and another 

 is pierced by a crater whose walls are lined with a yellow incrustation of 

 sulphur. 



The range is flanked on the west by superb lateral spurs, which from a 

 distance seem to be the dominant summits. Such are the Malintang (5,000 feet), 

 and the Pasomau, which European geographers have named Mount Ophir, not on 

 account of its gold mines, which have no existence, but in allusion to the natural 



