f 
SUMATRA 
perfices, muft be liable to very confiderable error. Like Great Britain, 
it is broackft at the fourhem extremity, narrowing gradually to th€ 
north ; and to this ifland it is perhaps in fize, more nearly allied than 
in lliape. 
A chain of high mountains runs through its whole extent, the ranges 
being in many parts double and treble, but fituated, in general, nearer 
to the weftern than the oppofite coaft ; being, on the former, feldoin fa 
much as twenty miles from the fea. The altitude of thefe mountain 
though very great, is not futficient to occafion theit being covered with 
fnow, during any part of the year, as thofe in South America, between 
the tropics, are found to be. Mount Ophtrj fituated immediately under 
the equinoAial line, is fuppofed to be the higheft vifible from the fea, 
its fummit being elevated thirteen thoufand ei^h*- T^^j^Jied and forty- 
two feet above that level ; which is no more than two thirds of the 
height the French aftronoraers have afcribed to the loftiefl: of the 
And^s^ but ibmcwhat exceeds that of the Peak of Teneriffe/-^- Between 
thefe 
lAand. Ifihabjtants of Malacca fay it was ftjrfiierly joined to tKe cdnrineni, but ftparatcd by m 
earthquake.' Herbert^* Travcts. Printed 1677. Oderic call Sutnatra, Sym^ltit i Jorephus, 
Samira j others, Alramh and Zamara. Symnnda m Plotomey ; by the tnhibitaBt* ^alycA and 
Salutra* Mediterrarvean Town Mmtancah^ fotiTiedy caHcd Syndo amda*'' — Richihoflfer, Voy- 
ages in German, 1667. Sumatra is fpcit SammaUr. — Dampier, i&SS. This circutnna victor 
mentions having fcen an c!d map, in which there was no other name to Samatia, but that of 
Shi&a, — Relandnt. " lodaltts. Ita appellatur mcolis & vicbis, lufula i!la tpjse vulgd 
S-amacra, a ioto quodam eJtcelfo in c4 infuSft di£lo $smaJm. *' - — b j9rmk^,"—l have been 
chiefly enabled to obtain the foregoing cxtrafts ; many of them from very fcarce authors j and 
others that wiH occur tn the fubfequent part of the work, by neoOurTe to the valuable to! ]e£Ho]i 
of voyages and travels, fperhaps unequalled in any library in Europe), formed by, and in the 
poffelTion of Alexander Dahymplie, Efij. 
Some pctfons have imagined that they find aji cafy derivation of the name of Sumatra, or 
Samatra, from a word fo fpelt, fignifying a " fquali** in the Portuguefc and Spanifli languages : 
but the fsft is juft the le^^erfe. Sailors finding Tuch fqualJs to prevail in the neighbourhood of 
that ifland, naturally called them after its name ; and even the Englifli call tliem Sumairas ; a$ 
fliey fay a S€ot<h Mtjt* 
* The following is the rcfult of obfervations loade by Mr, Robert Nariae, of the height of 
Mount Ophic 
Heighc 
