chap, i.] PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 1 7 



markedly, so that most of its productions are of distinct 

 and peculiar species ; while Madagascar, divided from 

 Africa by a deep channel three hundred miles wide, pos- 

 sesses so many peculiar features as to indicate separation 

 at a very remote antiquity, or even to render it doubtful 

 whether the two countries have ever been absolutely 

 united. 



Eeturning now to the Malay Archipelago, we find that 

 all the wide expanse of sea which divides Java, Sumatra, 

 and Borneo from each other, and from Malacca and Siam, 

 is so shallow that ships can anchor in any part of it, since 

 it .rarely exceeds forty fathoms in depth ; and if we go as 

 far as the line of a hundred fathoms, we shall include the 

 Philippine Islands and Bali, east of Java. If, therefore, 

 these islands have been separated from each other and 

 the continent by subsidence of the intervening tracts of 

 land, we should conclude that the separation has been 

 comparatively recent, since the depth to which the land 

 has subsided is so small. It is also to be remarked, that 

 the great chain of active volcanoes in Sumatra and Java 

 furnishes us with a sufficient cause for such subsidence, 

 since the enormous masses of matter they have thrown 

 out would take away the foundations of the surrounding 

 district ; and this may be the true explanation of the 

 often-noticed fact, that volcanoes and volcanic chains are 

 always near the sea. The subsidence they produce around 



vol. i. c 



