584 GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES IN MALAYSIA AND ASIA, 



by a range to the eastward with Mount Salak (nearly 7,000 feet) 

 and Panjerango (9,300 feet), which is au active crater, forming 

 the eastern termination of the range, which here has a very wide 

 extension southward. These two mountains are familiar to most 

 travellers who visit Java and " do "' the island by going from 

 Batavia to Buitenzorg. They form one of the most lovely pieces 

 of scenery visible anywhere in this beautiful island. It has been 

 engraved so often as to need no description. 



The north side of the kingdom of Bantam is formed of the rich 

 alluvial plains, to the westward of Batavia, deposited by numerous 

 rivers which have their sources in the mountains just referred to. 

 The extreme north-west of the coast of the Straits of Sunda 

 terminates in Mount Karang (5,350 feet) and Mount Pulde Sari 

 (about 3,900 feet). 



Physical Geography. — Briefly, then, the physical geography 

 of Java may be stated thus : — A long and narrow volcanic island 

 extending east and west ; high and precipitous for the whole 

 extent of its southern side, and consisting entirely on its northern 

 side of low alluvial and, to some extent, marshy plains. These 

 alluvial plains extend for long distances out to sea where the 

 waters are extremely shallow, and the coast without the protec- 

 tion of any high land. The seas of the southern coast, on the 

 contrary, are very deep, and scarcely afibrding any shelter for 

 vessels. The high lands of the south coast are entirely formed 

 by volcanic cones, connected with one another only by irregular 

 ash and lava deposits which have flowed from them. Apparently 

 there is no range of elevation apart from the craters, but it 

 suggests itself that the ancient land, if there has been any such, 

 was a range along what is now the southern coast, First of all, 

 it is a watershed without a break of any kind. Secondly, what- 

 ever fossiliferous formations are found in the island occur in this 

 range. Thus there are recognised miocene and pliocene rocks, 

 and probably eocene beds as well. There is also a tertiary coal 

 formation, and palaeozoic slates and schists or metamorj)hic strata. 

 There are but few places where these I'ocks become visible. 



