WHERE THE DASIN OF THE INDIAN OCEAN BEf^INS, 485 



to tie present searlevel, so is tlie long, narrow area 

 "between these islands and Sumatra a platean, wlien 

 compared with the bed of the unfathomable ocean 

 outside of them. In the same manner, then, as 

 the Kurile and Japan Islands, the Lew-Chews, and 

 Formosa, are but the more elevated parts of a great 

 mountain-chain that rises on the eastern edge of the 

 continent of Asia^ so these islands are only the tops 

 of another great chain which rises on a paH of the 

 southern border of the same continent, and indicates 

 where the wide and deep basin of the Indian Ocean 

 commences. 



