8 



TlIE MALAY AJtCHirELAOO. 



[CUAF, L 



nents and raise^d up islands from the ocean, — yet it has 

 all the character of a recent action, which has not yet 

 succeeded in obliterating the traces of a more ancient 

 distribution of land and 'W'ater. 



Contrasts of Vegetation,— V{;icqA immediately upon the 

 Equator and surrounded by extensive oceans, it is not 

 sui-prising that the various islands of the Archipelago 

 sfiould be almost always clothed with a forest vegetation 

 from the level of the sea to the suiuniits of the loftiest 

 mountains. This is the general rule, Sumatra, New 

 Guinea, Borneo, the PhiU]>piiies and the Moluccfis, and 

 the uncultivated parts of Java and Celebes, are all forest 

 countritjs, except a few small and unimportant tracts, due 

 perhaps, in some cases, to ancient cultivation or accidental 

 fires. To tliis, however, there is one important exception 

 in the island of Timor and all the smaller islands around 

 it, in which there is absolutely no forest such as exists in 

 the otlier islands, and this character extends in a lesi^tr 

 degree to Flores, Sunibawa, Lombock, and Bali. 



In Timor the most common trees are Eucalypti of 

 several species, so characteristic of Ausb"alia, with sandal- 

 wood, acacia, and other sorts in less aljimdance. These 

 are scattered over the country more or less thickly, hut 

 never so as to deserve the name of a forest. Coarse and 

 scanty giiisscs grow beneath them on the more barren 

 lulls, and a luxuriant herbage in the moi^ter localities. 

 In the islands between Timor and Java there is oili-n a 

 more thickly wooded country, abounding in thoniy and 

 prickly trees. These seldom reach any great height, and 

 during the force of the dry season they almost completely 

 lose their leaves, allowing the ground beneath them to 

 be y arched up, and contrastiiiix strongly with the damp, 

 gloomy, ever-verdant forests of the other islands. This 

 peculiar character, which extends in a less degree to the 

 southern peninsula of Celebes and the east end of Java, 

 is most probably owing to the proximity of Australia. 

 The south-east monsoon, which laats for about two-thirds 

 of the year (from March to Kovember), blowing over the 

 northern parts of that country, produces a degree of heat 

 and dryness which assimilates the vegetation and physical 

 aspect of the adjacent islands to its own. A little furth^-r 



