Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

150 AUSTRALASIA.north-westwards towards Sumatra, by a level marine plateau covered by less than50 fathoms of water. Above this flooded plain rise a few low insular groups,such as the " Thousand Isles," north-west of Batavia, and the twenty-six islets ofKarimon-Java, north of Semarang Bay.Bawean, with its fringing reef and cone2,000 feet high, is distinguished by its igneous origin from all the otherislands in these waters. Farther east the Solombo group, about midway betweenMadura and Borneo, is very low, nowhere presenting any eminence, except onGreat Solombo.Madura itself may be regarded as a simple dependence of Java, forming itsnorth-eastern extension. On their north side both mainly consist of low-lyingplains continued under the water by reefs and sandbanks. The south coast, onthe contrary, is steep and rocky, plunging abruptly into the oceanic depths.BothFig. 57. Chief Volcanoes in Java.Scale 1 : 10,000,000.j____^._^^.;5^\\WV//;'-^,-^X,\\viSICjseaboards are indented by bays and inlets penetrating some considerable distanceinland, although as a whole the island presents the almost geometrical aspect of along quadrilateral, nearly parallel with the equator. West and east it extendsfrom the Java-hoofd (Java head) in a straight line for 620 miles to Java's Oosthoek(Java's East Point). But north and south the distance varies greatly,narrowing towards the centre to about half of its normal breadth. ExcludingMadura and the smaller indentations, the coast-line has a total length of 2,100miles.Volcanoes ofJava.The western has a much greater moan elevation than the eastern section of theisland, forming a plateau from 2,000 to 3,000 feet high. Here also the mountainsare connected by lofty ridges or saddles, the former intervening valleys having