CHAP. 1.] 



TffTSICJl GEOORAPHY. 



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New Guinea, on the east. All the jjreat islands included 

 within these limits are connected togetlier by innumerable 

 smaller ones, so that no one of them seems to be dis- 

 tinctly separated from the rest. With but few exceptions, 

 all enjoy iin uniform and veiy similar climate, and are 

 covered with a luxuriant forest vegetation. Whether we 

 study their form and distribution on maps, or actually 

 travel from island to island, our first impression will be 

 that tliey form a connected whole, all tbe parts of wliich 

 are intimately related to each other. 



Extent of the Archipelago and Islands, — The Malay 

 Archipelago extends for more than 4,000 miles in length 

 from east to west, and is about 1,300 in breadth from 

 north to south. It would stretch over on expanse etjual to 

 that of all KuTope from the extreme west fax into Central 

 Asia, or would cover the widest pjarts of South America, 

 and extend far beyond the land into the Pacific and 

 Atlantic oceans. It includes three islands larger than 

 Great Britaiji ; and in one of them, Borneo, the whole of 

 the Britltsh Isles might be set down, and would be sur- 

 rounded by a sea of forests. New Guinea, though less 

 compact in shape, is probably larger than Borneo. Sumatra 

 is about equal in extent to Great Britain; Java, Luzon, 

 and Celebes are each about the size of Ireland. Eigliteen 

 more islands are, on the average, as hirgrs as Jamaica; 

 more than a hundred are as large as the Isle of Wight ; 

 while the isles and islets of smaller size are innumerable. 



The absolute extent of land in the Archipelago is not 

 greater than that contained by Western Europe from 

 Hungar)^ to Spain ; but, owing to the manner in which the 

 land is broken up and divided, the variety of its produc- 

 tions is rather iu propoi-tion to the immense surface over 

 which the islands are spread, than to the quantity of land 

 which they contain. 



Geological Cotitrasts, — One of the chief volcanic belts 

 upon the globe passes through tbe Archipelago, and pro- 

 duces a striking contrast in the scenery of the volctinic 

 and non-voicanic islands. A curving line, marked out 

 by scores of active and hundreds of extinct volcanoes, 

 may be traced tlirough tlte whole length of Sumatra and 

 Java, and thenca by the islands of Bali, Lombock, Sum- 



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