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than 50 miles wide, mountainous in the centre, but with 
plains both on the north and south coasts. Here the 
mountains exceed 10,000 feet. Then comes a portion 
which is about 100 miles wide, as far as Surabaya, at 
which spot an extensive valley nearly crosses the island. 
Beyond this the eastern end is only 50 miles wide, yet 
it contains the great mountain of Semeru, over 12,000 
feet in height, and the highest in all Java. Dr. Junghuhn 
estimated the mean height of the island at about 1600 
feet. 
The island of Madura forms one of the “ Residencies ” 
of Java, and is always grouped with it in Dutch statistics, 
a position which physical geography tells us it has every 
right to occupy, for it has undoubtedly been separated 
from the main island at no very distant geological date. 
2. History. 
Although from a very early period Java has been the 
seat of a more or less advanced civilisation, the records 
concerning it are remarkably scanty. It is probable that 
the Hindus established themselves upon the island about 
the sixth century of our era, but even this indefinite date 
is at best conjectural, and the date of the construction of 
their great temples, whose ruins still remain to astonish 
the traveller by their size and magnificence, is likewise in 
many instances doubtful or unknown. It is, however, a 
tolerably well established fact that the death-blow to 
Hindu influence was inflicted in 1478, when Majapahit, 
near Surabaya, the capital of the chief Hindu state, was 
destroyed by the Arab traders who had established them¬ 
selves upon the coast. Still, nothing much more was 
known of the island for a long period, and though Marco 
