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M A L A Y A N IS L ES .
attiacÎëïï courfe of the wafers towards the eaft. Java, Cumbava,
’Tiinar, The Molucca iflands, and Netv Guinea were formed by
their influence. At New Guinea the torrent took a foutherly
direcftion, and rent into fragments all that part o f the primitive
world, even to the remoteft o f the Society iflands, which, like the
train o f a comet, ihew the innumerable remnants o f land, moft
evident witneifes o f its courfe. The amazing ifland o f New Holland
relifted the force, and continues, more worthy o f the name o f a
continent. New Zealand remains divided from all the reft ; to the
eaft is fea as far as America, and remote as the pole itfelf on the
fgntjth^ The north part of the,va&Pacific is ccmtraéied by, the approximation
o f Afm and America. The crefqeqt iflands from
Alafchka to Kamlfchatka mark the antient union of. the prefent
continents... The flood, formed from- th e . fouth of KamtfihcUjta
the- Kuril ifles,. Matmay, and Japan?, Ljqueo. and. Formosa, the
Philippine iflands, the great Borneo, and all the groups fcattered
over the ocean to -the north-eaft, fuch as the Pelew, the La-
dron.eSy and the Carelmas, and the range named after Lord Muir
grave. Such is the hypothetical view o f this face o f the globe.
Sumatra, the firff ifland which ftrikes. our eye, bounds the
weft fide o f the ftreights of Malacca. The equator croffes it in
the middle, and divides- it into almoft two equal parts. Acheen
head lies in Lat. 50 33' north, and Hogs point in 5° 5' fouth. The
length is about eight hundred miles, and the greateft breadth
a hundred and thirty. All the weftern fide is very low, and, interfered
with fwamps, infulating certain patches flightly elevated.
A range o f mountains runs through the whole ifland,
much nearer to the weftern than the ejftern coaft. In fome
9 places
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places they are double and treble, with1 beautiful vallies between
each chain ; but, excepting where cleared, both valley and
mountain are clothed with ihady forefts. Thefe chains approximate
to the coaft on the whole of the weftern fide. At their foot
is low, and often fwampy land.
S o m e o f the mountains are of a vaft height; Ophir, fituated
immediately under the line, is 13,842 feet high, or two miles one
thoufand and ninety-four yards. No fnow is ever feen on it, yet
the inhabitants of all the chains are, like thofe of other alpine
regions, fubjeift to monftrous wens or goitres : this malady owes
its origin to the water, or the thick, cold, and foggy vapors which
univerfally arife from the vallies. Thefe people are not infefted
with any particular difeafe, the 1‘efult of the tumors ; they enjoy
the fame health as others; but the climate o f Sumatra near to
the fea, or amidft the fwamps, is dreadful. “ Near Indrapour,”
fays Lind*, 0 is a place where no Buropean can venture to fleep
‘‘ one night on ihore during the rainy feafon without running
its the hazard of his life, or at leaft o f a dangerous fit of ficknefs;
9 and at Podang, a Dutch fettlement on the fame ifland, the air
“ has been found fo bad, that it is- commonly called the Plague
“ Coaft. Here a thick peftilential vapor or fog arifes after the
“ rains, from the marfhes, which deftroys: all the white inha-
“ bitants.’,’
In all thefe chains are numbers of volcanoes, which are called
by the Malayes, Goonong Appee; they generally fmoke, but fel-
dom emit flames or lava jr. I believe no accurate obfervations
have been yet made on their nature, being at a confiderable
* Effay on Difeafes, p, 79. . + Marfdtn's Sumatra, p. 22.
B I. diftance
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V o l c a n o e s ,