CHAPTER VI 
SUMATRA 
1. General. 
Sumatra, the westernmost of all the Dutch Indian pos¬ 
sessions, is one of the largest islands in the world, and 
in the archipelago is surpassed in size only by New 
Guinea and Borneo. Its extreme length is about 1060 
miles, its greatest breadth 260, and its area, so far as an 
insufficient survey can admit of its being calculated, 
about 170,000 square miles. It lies with its long axis 
in a N.W. and S.E. direction, and is traversed from north 
to south by an almost unbroken chain of mountains, 
many of which are volcanoes. This chain lies close to 
the western shore, and hence the island may be roughly 
described as presenting a high, steep wall, and straight, 
almost harbourless coast-line, to the Indian Ocean, guarded 
by an outlying chain of large islands; while the eastern 
portion, which goes to form the Strait of Malacca, is low, 
flat, and alluvial, intersected with large rivers forming 
great deltas, and consequently provided with numerous 
harbours. At the south, Sumatra is separated from 
Java by the great ocean highway known as the Straits 
of Sunda, and memorable of late years as the site of the 
appalling eruption of Krakatau. A considerable portion 
