2 



Tm M.iLAY JRCfflPEUGO, 



[chap. I. 



that some of its separate islands aro larger than France 

 or the Austrian empire. The travL-lkT, howeverj sooii 

 acquires difil'rent ideas, lie sails for days, or even for 

 weeks, along the shores of one of these great islands, often 

 so gteat that its inliabitaiits belie%^e it to be a vast con- 

 tineiit He iinds that voyages among these islands are 

 commonly reckoned by weeks and mouths, and that, their 

 several iuhabitruits are often as little known to each other 

 as are the native rfiees of the northern to those of the 

 southern continent of America, lie soon comes to look 

 upon this region as one apart fixini the rest of the world 

 with its own races of men and its own aspects of nature ; 

 with its own ideas, feelings, customs, and modes of speech, 

 and with a climate, vegetation, and animated life altogether 

 peculiar to itself, 



From many points of view these islands form one 

 compact- gcdgraphical whole, and as such they have always 

 been treated by travellei-s and men of science ; hut a more 

 careful and detailed study of them under vartuus aspects, 

 reveals the unexpected fact that they are divisible into 

 two portions nearly equal in extent, which widely differ 

 in their natural products, and really form part^ of two 

 of the primary divisions of the earth. I have been able 

 to prove this in considerable detail by my observations on 

 tlie naturiil history of the various parts of the Archipelago ; 

 and as in the description of my travels and residence in 

 the several islands I shall have to refer continually to this 

 view, and adduce facts iu support of it, I have thought it 

 advisable to commence with a general sketch of s\icli <»! 

 the main features of the Malayan region as will render 

 ilie facts hereafter brought forward more interesting, and 

 their beai'ing on the general question more easily under- 

 stood, I proceed, therefore, to sketch the limits and 

 extent of the Archipelago, and to point out the more 

 striking features of its geology, physical geography, 

 vegetation, and animal life. 



Dejimiion mid Boundaries. — For reasons which depend 

 mdidy on the distribution of animal life, I consider the 

 JIulay Archipelago to include the Malay Peninsula as far 

 as Tenasserim, and the Nicobar Islands on the west, the 

 Philippines on the north, and the Solomon Islands beyond 



