326 
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
any other in the whole archipelago. It contains a great 
variety of surface and of soil, abundance of large and 
small streams, some of which are navigable, alluvial 
plains, abrupt hills and lofty mountains, and a grand and 
luxuriant forest vegetation. Moreover, having no savage 
inhabitants, every part of it can be visited with safety. 
The other islands of this group are practically unin¬ 
habited. 
Obi Major, the chief of the Obi group, is a fine 
island about 45 miles in length by 20 in breadth. 
The mountains of the interior reach a height of 5000 
feet or more, but appear to be clothed with forest to their 
summits, as, indeed, is the whole island. It is well- 
watered, and is apparently both fertile and healthy. Yet, 
strangely enough, the group is totally uninhabited, the 
only instance of the kind in the whole of the archipelago, 
and this, too, in spite of its central position. Now and 
then it is visited by fishermen from Batjan, who build 
huts and occupy themselves in curing fish or catching 
turtle; but no permanent settlement exists, and it does 
not appear that any people of Papuan race ever estab¬ 
lished themselves here, as was the case in Halmahera to 
the north, and probably in Ceram to the south. Among 
the Ternate natives Obi bears the reputation of being 
haunted, which may perhaps account for the absence of 
population. It was inhabited in former times, and Dr. 
Guillemard found old sago and nutmeg plantations on 
the western side of the island, where are the ruins of 
an ancient Dutch fort. Obi is probably in no part 
volcanic, but appears to be composed of the older 
crystalline rocks. Coal and lignite exist, and probably 
gold, but no explorations have been made, and the existing 
charts of the island are extremely inaccurate. 
