XSE EASTERN ABCEiPELAGO. 



Ill 



ns is p-m-mlly siipposnl, fWr th« "Tnnflic Kini Haiti in North Fii-ru-vi ron- 

 sidcraWy exceeds 13,500 feet But by far tlic highest summits are found 

 iu New Guinea, where some of tin- Ow»-n Stanley peak* reach 13,000,, mid. 

 those of the Charles Louis Mountains 17,000 or 13,000 feet shove son-Wcl. 

 This is the highest laud which occurs anywhere betwi-rii tin; HimnhiyiM hi 

 the west, and the Cordilleras du loa AndL-a iu the coat. 



Throughout the whole of the volcanic belt in the Eastern Archi- 

 pelago, which lms u total length of not less than 5000 miles, and 

 which contain* some sixty active and hundreds of extinct volcanoes, 

 earthquakes of varying intensity ore still of almost constant occurrence. 

 These are ut times nevoid pan ied by ireim-nd-ni* eruptions, vailing 

 wide-spread ruin over vast spaces, and changing the wbj aspect of 

 the land. The most recent ami one of the most memorable of these 

 outbursts occurred on August 20, 1883, when the island of Kmkatao, 

 in the Snnda Strait between Java and Sumatra, was almost blown 

 tn pieces both sides of the strait wasted fur nnd wide, the surrounding 

 waters strewn with limiting lava* ibr hundred* of mile*, and tho 

 atmosphere filled with such a prodigious quantity of Impalpable 

 du^t, llinl lo it Were allributeil llu- remarkuM-- i.Tepiwular lights 

 viEiblc in almost every port of the world for mouths aft core arfl a. 

 Although since this event r in- .l,i\\u, volcanoes have l»een com- 

 paratively quiet, Sincroc, the hJghcst in the island, and its nelgh- 

 Ihjuts, Broino and Lainonyon, show constant signs of distiirlj&nce. 

 Ill 1885 Smcroc overwhelmed plantations and villages with eruptive' 

 matter, and lavas are continually (lowing from Merapi, in Hi..- iin'.iv 

 of Java.— Van Qeum*. 



Qeology.-=ThroLighoul the whole of the northern section of the 

 Archipelago, from Sumatra to the Philippine*, the salient geological 

 features seem to resemble those of the Malayan Peninsula, where an 

 elevated granite axis h flanked at the base by palaeozoic schists nnd 

 slates underlying detached masses of cryslalline and other limestones. 

 The main axis of Sumatra, running in the same direction, appears to 

 be also granitic, if not stanniferous like the neighbouring islands of 

 Uitiom, Bintang, and Banco. In South Sumatra Forbes found 

 eocene tertiary rocks underlying more recent pumieestune tuffa. 

 Granitic insular groups, such as the Natunas, are also thickly strewn 

 m tin- LL ?ea of the twelve thousand islands" flowing between Sumatra 

 and Borneo. The latter island presents the first extensive develop- 

 ment of stratified rocks, carbonaceous of various ages, brown and 

 yellow sandstones and shales, with intercalated grits and conglomer- 

 ates And occasional granitic outliers. Coalfields, some evidently 

 much older than those of Lubuan, and allied, perhaps mcsowic 



