CHAPTER XVII. 
BORNEO AND JAVA. 
Position and physical features of Borneo — Zoological features of Borneo : 
Mammalia — Birds — The affinities of the Bornean fauna — Java, its 
position and physical features — General character of the fauna of Java 
— Differences between the fauna of Java and that of the other Malay 
Islands — Special relations of the Javan fauna to that of the Asiatic 
continent — Past geographical changes of Java and Borneo — The 
Philippine Islands — Concluding remarks on the Malay Islands. 
As a representative of recent continental islands situated in 
the tropics, we will take Borneo, since, although perhaps not 
much more ancient than Great Britain, it presents a considerable 
amount of speciality ; and, in its relations to the surrounding 
islands and the Asiatic continent, offers us some problems of 
great interest and considerable difficulty. 
The accompanying map shows that Borneo is situated on the 
eastern side of a submarine bank of enormous extent, beino 1 
' o 
about 1,200 miles from north to south, and 1,500 from east to 
west, and embracing Java, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula. 
This vast area is all included within the 100 fathom line, but by 
far the larger part of it — from the Gulf of Siam to the Java 
Sea — is under fifty fathoms, or about the same depth as the 
sea that separates our own island from the continent. The 
distance from Borneo to the southern extremity of the Malay 
Peninsula is about 350 miles, and it is nearly as far from Sumatra 
and Java, while it is more than 600 miles from the Siamase 
Peninsula, opposite to which its long northern coast extends. 
There is, I believe, nowhere else upon the globe, an island so far 
