Geological Contrasts.—One of the chief volcanic belts
upon the globe passes through the Archipelago, and produces
a striking contrast in the scenery of the volcanic
and non-volcanic islands. A curving line, marked out
by scores of active and hundreds of extinct volcanoes,
may be traced through the whole length of Sumatra and
Java, and thence by the islands of Bali, Lombock, Sum-
bawa, Flores, the Serwatty Islands, Banda, Amboyna,
Batchian, Makian, Tidore, Ternate, and Gilolo, to Morty
Island. Here there is a slight but well-marked break, or
shift, of about 200 miles to the westward, where the
volcanic belt again begins, in North Celebes, and passes
by Siau and Sanguir to the Philippine Islands, along the
eastern side of which it continues, in a curving line, to
their northern extremity. From the extreme eastern bend
of this belt at Banda, we pass onwards for 1,000 miles
over a non-volcanic district to the volcanoes observed by
Dam pier, in 1699, on the north-eastern coast of New
Guinea, and can there trace another volcanic belt, through
New Britain, New Ireland, and the Solomon Islands, to
the eastern limits of the Archipelago.
In the whole region occupied by this vast line of volcanoes,
and for a considerable breadth on each side of it,
earthquakes are of continual recurrence, slight shocks being
felt at intervals of every few weeks or months, while more
severe ones, shaking down whole villages, and doing more
or less injury to life and property, are sure to happen, in
one part or another of this district, almost every year. In
many of the islands the years of the great earthquakes form
the chronological epochs of the native inhabitants, by the
aid of which the ages of their children are remembered,
and the dates of many important events are determined.
I can only briefly allude to the many fearful eruptions
that have taken place in this region. In the amount of
injury to life and property, and in the magnitude of their
effects, they have not been surpassed by any upon record.
Forty villages were destroyed by the eruption of Papanda-
yang in Java, in 1772, when the whole mountain was blown
up by repeated explosions, and a large lake left in its place.
By the great eruption of Tomboro in Sumbawa, in 1815,
12,000 people were destroyed, and the ashes darkened the
air and fell thickly upon the earth and sea for 300 miles
round. Even quite recently, since I quitted the country,
a mountain which had been quiescent for more than 200
years suddenly burst into activity. The island of Makian,
one of the Moluccas, was rent open in 1646 by a violent
eruption, which left a huge chasm on one side, extending
into the heart of the mountain. It was, when I last
visited it, in 1860, clothed with vegetation to the summit,
and contained twelve populous Malay villages. On the
29th of December, 1862, after 215 years of perfect inaction,
it again suddenly burst forth, blowing up and com