GENERAL FEATURES OF MALAYSIA 
17 
In this extensive chain of volcanic mountains many 
attain great heights, especially in Sumatra and Java. 
Each of these islands has one mountain about 12,000 
feet high, while the former has four and the latter ten 
which exceed 10,000 feet. In no other part of the 
chain, except in Bali and Lombok, immediately east of 
Java, are there any heights which approach these. Lom¬ 
bok Peak is probably nearly 12,500 feet. The highest 
volcanoes of the Philippines and Northern Celebes are 
about 7000 or 8000 feet, and those of the Moluccas from 
5000 to 6000, if we except Labua in Batjan, which is 
probably over 7000 feet. Besides Lombok, there is only 
one mountain in the whole Malay Archipelago that ex¬ 
ceeds in height the lofty peaks of Sumatra and Java—the 
isolated mass of Kina Balu, near the northern extremity 
of Borneo, which is said to be 13,698 feet high, and 
which is probably far higher than any other mountain in 
the island, or than any non-volcanic mountain in the 
whole archipelago. The summit of Kina Balu is syenitic 
granite, and it probably represents a portion of the most 
ancient extension of the Asiatic continent in Tertiary or 
Secondary times, since it contains plants allied to some 
now only found in temperate Australia. 
Prom the position of these Malayan islands between 
19° north and 10° south of the equator, they all enjoy 
that equability of climate and abundance of moisture 
which are so highly favourable to the growth of arboreal 
vegetation, and which have produced the great forest-belt 
everywhere girdling the earth in the equatorial zone. 
Hence the general condition of almost all the islands, 
where not interfered with by man, is to be covered with 
luxuriant tropical forests, and this forest-covering is 
universal except on the very highest summits or pre¬ 
cipitous rocky slopes of the mountains. There is only 
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