MOUNTAINS OF BOENEO. 123 



companies, under the direct protectorate of Great Britain. But a frontier question 

 still remains to be settled between the Dutch Grovernment and the North Borneo 

 Company, arising out of a misimderstanding as to the identity of the river Sebuku, 

 which is accepted by both sides as the boundary line. 



Physical Fp:atlres of Borneo. 



With the exception of Celebes and Halmahera, the Indonesian islands present, 

 as a rule, extremely simple outlines. Some even affect the form of geometrical 

 figures, such as parallelograms, ovals, trapeziums, and, as in the case of Borneo, 

 triangles. At first sight the observer is struck by the contrast presented by these 

 massive contours, compared to those of the eccentric island of Celebes, with its 

 curiously radiating peninsulas. But a superficial stud}^ of the Bornean mountain 

 ranges shows that a slight subsidence of the land would suffice to give the great 

 island a coastline analogous to those of Celebes and Halmahera. Reduced to its 

 framework of hills, Borneo presents in the first place a main ridge, disposed from 

 south-west to north-east, in the direction of the Philippines. But from the central 

 part of this ridge branch off three divergent chains, terminating at the principal 

 headlands of the island, and separated from each other by the alluvial plains of 

 intervening fluvial basins. The primitive aspect of the island has thus been 

 gradually modified by erosions and sedimentary deposits, which during the course 

 of ages has rendered less and less distinct its original stellar formation. 



The main range begins some 30 miles from the Philippine waters in a superb 

 mountain, culminating point not only of Borneo, but probably of the whole of 

 Indonesia. Kina-Balu, or the " Chinese Widow," as it is named from a curious 

 local legend, was first ascended by Low in 1851. Belcher's trigonometric 

 measurements give it an altitude of 13,300 feet, although travellers who have 

 approached nearest to the summit estimate its height at not much more than 

 11,000 feet. Seen from one of the bays indenting the west coast, Kina-Balu seems 

 to rise almost vertically above the surrounding heights, terminating in an irregular 

 crest, which is surmounted bj^ distinct prominences resembling towers. Formerly 

 its slopes were clothed with dark forests up to a height of 10,000 feet ; but the 

 woodlands have almost everywhere been cleared by the highland peasantry, the 

 primeval brushwood surviving only on the more inaccessible precipices. The 

 prevailing formations are granites and crystalline rocks, although according to 

 Little, who ascended Kina-Balu in 1867, a crater of vast size opens on its flanks, 

 while fragments of lavas are strewn over the surrounding granites. 



Till recently geographers sjjoke of a large lake situated at the east foot of the 

 mountain with a circumference of about 100 miles. But no such lake exists, nor 

 is there anything to justify the report beyond a fen or morass flooded during the 

 periodical inundations of a neighbouring stream. The belief in this jaretended 

 lake may possibly be due to the Malay term, da )i an, that is, "lake," or "sea," 

 applied to one of the surrounding districts. 



South of Kina-Balu the divide between the eastern and western slopes falls 



