SUMATEA 
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heights have been estimated at over 11,100 and 12,100 
feet respectively, and if these be correct there is no doubt 
that Luse is the highest peak in Sumatra. A little 
farther to the south the main range forks, and at this 
point is the most important of the mountain lakes of 
Sumatra, many of which, it may be remarked, are formed 
in extinct craters. This sheet of water, known as Lake 
Toba, is of considerable size, being 45 miles in length 
and 15 in breadth, and is occupied in the centre by a 
large insuloid mass of land which is joined to the shore 
by the narrowest possible connection. This lake thus 
resembles very closely Lake Taal in the Philippines, for 
the central island, if we may so term it, although not 
now active, is, like that of Taal, a volcano, and the narrow 
connecting causeway has been formed by ashes ejected 
from its crater. The shores of Lake Toba are thickly 
populated by Battaks, among whom the Dutch are re¬ 
presented by a “ Controleur.” Almost on the equator 
is Mount Ophir (9610 feet), the isolated position and 
fine outline of which render it a well-known object to 
seamen. It is a volcano, but is now extinct. Merapi, 
the next peak of any importance, is very far from being 
so, and its eruptions have been more numerous than 
those of any other Sumatran volcano—at all events 
during the present century, a fact which partly explains 
its Malay name, the Lire Destroyer. Although by no 
means the loftiest mountain in the chain, the Malays 
have adapted a form of the story of the ark to it, and 
regard it as their Ararat. 
During the Central Sumatran Expedition of 1877, 
Mr. Yeth ascended the Talang and Korinchi or Indra- 
pura volcanoes. The former, which is 8343 feet in 
height, dominates the city of Padang, and although now 
inactive, affords the natives an inexhaustible store of 
