Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

SUMATRAN HIGHLAXDS. 83wealth of the great tropical island. Being completely isolated in appearance, andrising just five miles north of the equator, about the exact centre of the oceaniccoast of Sumatra, Ophir stands out as the most conspicuous insular landmark formariners navi^atino; the neio^hbourino- waters. Hence till recently it wassupposed to be the culminating point of the island, and a far greater altitudewas assigned to it than the 9,600 feet to which modern explorers have reducedit.Mount Ophir has two chief summits besides several partly obliterated craters.Farther on the main range proper is interrupted by the broad valley of iheThe Merai'I Voi.caxic Ran'oe.Scale 1 ; 730,000."^W'^^^PTTT"1^^^LTsl oF Ureen320 Feet andupwards.river Masang, south of which a transver.se volcanic ridge trends west and east outhe border of the Padang uplands. The westernmost volcano of this system haslost its mountainous aspect, nothing remaining except the vast periphery of thebase, which now forms a wooded enclosure.The crest has disappeared, doubtlessblown away by some tremendous explosion, and about half of the old crater(1,520 feet) is now flooded with the oval-shaped Lake Maninju, called also Danau,or the " Sea." This basin, which discharges westwards to the Indian Ocean,is fed by a few slightly thermal and alkaline springs nuuh frecjuentcd by the