Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

MOUNTAINS OF BORNEO. 123companies, under the direct protectorate of Great Britain. But a frontier questionstill remains to be settled between the Dutch Government and the North BorneoCompany, arising out of a misunderstanding as to the identity of the river Sebuku,which is accepted by both sides as the boundary line.Physical Featl'res of Borneo.With the exception of Celebes and Halmahera, the Indonesian islands present,as a rule, extremely simple outlines. Some even affect the form of geometricalfigures, such as parallelograms, ovals, trapeziums, and, as in the case of Borneo,triangles.At first sight the observer is struck by the contrast presented by thesemassive contours, comjoared to those of the eccentric island of Celebes, with itscuriously radiating peninsulas. But a superficial study of the Bornean mountainranges shows that a slight subsidence of the land would suffice to give the greatisland a coastline analogous to those of Celebes and Halmahera. Reduced to itsframework of hOls, Borneo presents in the first place a main ridge, disposed fromsouth-west to north-east, in the direction of the Philippines. But from the centralpart ofthis ridge branch off three divergent chains, terminatiug at the principalheadlands of the island, and separated from each other by the alluvial j)lains ofintervening fluvial basins. The primitive aspect of the island has thus beengradually modified by erosions and sedimentary deposits, which during the courseof ages has rendered less and less distinct its original stellar formation.The main range begins some 30 miles from thePhilippine waters in a superbmountain, culminating point not only of Borneo, but probably of the whole ofIndonesia. Kina-Balu, or the " Chinese Widow," as it is named from a curiouslocal legend, was first ascended by Low in 1851. Belcher's trigonometricmeasurements give it an altitude of 13,300 feet, although travellers who haveapiproached nearest to the summit estimate its height at not much more than11,000 feet. Seen from one of the bays indenting the west coast, Kina-Balu seemsto rise almost vertically above the surrounding heights, terminating in an irregularcrest, which is surmounted by distinct prominences resembling towers. Formerlyits slopes were clothed with dark forests up to a height of 10,000 feet ; but thewoodlands have almost everywhere been cleared by the highland peasantry, theprimeval brushwood surviving only on the more inaccessible precipices. Theprevailing formations are granites and crystalline rocks, although according toLittle, who ascended Kina-Balu in 1807, a crater of vast size opens on its flanks,while fragments of lavas are strewn over the surrounding granites.Till recently geographers spoke of a large lake situated at the east foot of themoimtain with a circumference of about 100 miles. But no such lake exists, noris there anything to justify the report beyond a fen or morass flooded during theperiodical inundations of a neighbouring stream. The belief in this pretendedlake may possibly be due to the Malay ierva. danaii, that is, "lake," or "sea,"applied to one of the surrounding districts.South of Kina-Balu the divide between the eastern and western slopes fulls