202 AUSTRALASIA. 



The Strait of Loinbok separating- the two islands, although little more than 

 twenty miles broad at its narrowest point, has a depth of no less than five hundred 

 fathoms. This apparently unimportant channel may thus be said to form the 

 natural limit of the shallow Java Sea, which has an average depth of considerably 

 less than one hundred fathoms. The current in the Strait sets with a mean 

 velocit}^ of four miles an hour in the direction from south to north, and 

 Wallace has shown that for the distribution of animal and vegetable species this 

 passage forms in many respects the chief parting-line between the Indian and 

 Australian domains. The Areng palm {arenga saceharifem) is not found in 

 Lombok, which also lacks the teak, orchids, heaths, and mosses peculiar to the 

 Javanese flora. 



In the animal kingdom the differences are still greater, Lombok possessing 

 neither the tiger nor any other members of the feline family. Most of the 

 Javanese and Balinese birds are also unknown in the neighbouring island, which 

 on the other hand possesses several Australian species, amongst others the remark- 

 able megapodiiis gouldii, a species of turkey, which buries its eggs under a heap of 

 earth and foliage 6 or 7 feet high and 40 in circumference. Here also are 

 found the Australian cockatoos, which, however, reach as far west as the islet 

 of Pandita (Penida), separated only by shallow water from Bali. But the 

 transition of species may be followed from island to island, and according to 

 Martin, the true parting line between the Asiatic and Australian forms should be 

 placed rather to the north-west of Timor. 



Like Java and Bali, Lombok is intersected by two parallel ridges, sedimentary 

 in the south and volcanic in the north. The former, which scarcely exceeds 1,000 

 feet in height, is continued both east and west beyond the coast-line, and is inter- 

 sected at certain points by a few prominent masses of scoriae. It is also connected 

 with the northern volcanoes by some still older eruptive tufas, which form in the 

 centre of the island a water-parting for the streams flowing in one direction 

 towards Lombok Strait, in another to that of Alias. 



The volcanic chain begins over against Bali with Mount Wangsit (4,000 feet), 

 which is followed eastwards by several other extinct cones. The system merges 

 towards the middle of the range in the massive Renjani group, from the centre of 

 which rises the peak of Api, or " Fire," whence are still emitted wreaths of 

 sulphurous vapour. The highest summit of this group, usually known as the 

 Lombok peak, is one of the loftiest, if not the culminating point of Indonesia ; 

 but this majestic cone has not yet been ascended, and its altitude is variously 

 estimated at from 11,000 to L3,800 feet. 



The Sasaks, who form the great bulk of the population, differ physically but 

 little from the Balinese and speak a language of the same stock, but approaching 

 nearer to the Sumbawa dialect, although written with the Balinese alphabet. The 

 natives are all Mohammedans, but display little religious fervour, as is shown by 

 the general absence of mosques. Politically they are subject to the Balinese 

 intruders, who are represented by a colony of about twenty thousand scattered 

 over the western parts of the island. 



