Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/66

56 hardly be given with sufficient precision and detail. The Mcuutains general character of the country is mountainous, though none of the ranges and few of the individual peaks attain to any great elevation The centre of the island seems to be occupied by a kind of table-land, with which the principal chains connect themselves more or less directly. Of these the most extensive may be traced from Cape DattL on the west coast, in 2 5 24&quot; N. lat., northwards through the length of the island, which it divides as water-shed into two portions, a north-western of comparatively narrow dimensions, and a south-eastern comprising the rest of the island. The different parts of the chain are known by various local names, as the Krimbang or Bayang-Miut, the Batang-Lupar, the Madi, and the Anga- Anga Mountains. In the north-west corner of the island it attains its highest elevation in Kini-balu, or St Pietersberg, which is gene rally supposed to be the highest peak in the whole island. According to the trigonometrical measurement of Capt. Belcher the summit is 13,G98 feet above the level of the sea, but this was in 1851 reduced to 9500 by Messrs Low and St John, who were the first to ascend the mountain. A second great chain, known as the Kaminting Mountains, stretches south-west from the Anga-Anga, and fills the south-west corner of the island with numerous offshoots and underfalls ; and a third starting from the same quarter strikes first south-cast and then south along the southern part of the eastern coast, and is known as the Meratu Mountains. A fourth chain, of which the most important part bears the name of Sakuru, runs almost due east to (Jape Kamiungun. Sketch Map of Borneo. Unlike the most of the larger islands of the archipelago, and in remarkable contrast with Java, Borneo seems to possess no active volcanoes. Many of the poaks, however, bear distinct evidence of former activity in regular craters, now in some cases forming lakes of salt water. The prevailing rocks are limestone, slate, sandstones, con glomerates, and on the mountain tops syenitic granite. The limestone hills are remarkable for the number of their caves, many of which, such as those of llumbary, are a source of wealth to the natives, as they afford shelter to swallows that build edible nests.

The island, which is abundantly supplied with rivers and streams, may be hydrographically divided into five princi pal versants Of these the shortest lies alons&amp;gt;; the north western slope of the Krimbang and Kini-balu range&amp;gt; and discharges its waters into the Chinese Sea. The most im portant of its rivers are the Sarawak, the Batang-Lupar, the Seribas, the Rejang (which is navigable for 140 miles), the Baram (about half a mile wide at its mouth), the Limbang or Bruni Elver, the Tewaran, the Bintulu, and the Tampasuk, the last two having their sources in Mount Kini-balu itself. In the south-western versant the largest river is the Kapuas, which, rising towards the centre of the island, in about 114 E. long., falls, after a long and winding course, into the sea between Mempawa and Sukkadana. It has eight navigable mouths, and at Sintang, where it receives the Melawi, its principal tributary, it has a breadth of 1072 feet and a varying depth of 6 to 11 fathoms. The Banjermassin or Barito, which is the master stream of the southern versant, rises in the Kuti-Lama Lake, and reaches the Sea of Java in 114 30 E. long. Its upper channel is greatly interrupted by rocks and waterfalls, but the lower part of its course is wide and navigable, and traverses a rich alluvial district. Cross branches unite it with two rivers of considerable size towards the west, the Little Dayak or Muruug and the Great Dayak or Kahayan, and still further west are the independent rivers Mendawi, Sampit, Pembuang or Sudan, and Kota-Waringin. Passing over the south-east corner of the island, which is watered by a large number of short mountain streams, we reach the one great river of the eastern versant, the Kuti (Cod) or Mahakkan, which, rising in Mount Lassan-Tula, flows east, with a rapid and sinuous course, and falls by numerous mouths into the Strait of Macassar. Most of the rivers of the northern versant are comparatively small, as the island narrows into a kind of promontory. Besides the Sebuku, which rises in Mount Pentyieangan and falls into the sea at Teinelingan, the Berou, the Gunong-Tebur, and the Bulungan are all worthy of mention.

Among the lakes of Borneo that of Kini-balu, near the mountain of the same name, is regarded as the largest, but many others are of considerable size. The Dauau Sriang, for example, on the Kapuas River, is, according to Dr E. van Marten.&quot;, larger than the Lake of Constance. In the valley of the Isanjermassin are the Babi and the Pamiugir (or Telaga) Jakes, the latter of which supplies nearly all the inhabitants of the kingdom with fish ; and in the district of Sintang there is an extensive sheet of water, on the Kapuas-Tawang, which was discovered in 1825, and is known by the various names of the Luar, Sumbah, Malayu, or van Capellan Lake.

In spite of the equatorial position of the island its climate is nowhere oppressive, and in many places might almost be called temperate. At Pontianak, for example, which is almost under the equator, the mean reading of the thermometer is 82, while it varies from 76 to 79 at sunrise, and hardly ever, even at noon, exceeds 92. The difference between the rainy season and the dry is not rigidly marked ; the atmosphere is moist all the year round, and while, on the one hand, there is hardly a day of con tinuous downpour, there is hardly, on the other hand, a day without a shower. During the rainy season, which extends from November to May inclusive, the torrents, while they last, are tremendous, and the wind is frequently violent. Over such an extensive area there is, of course, great variety in the climatic character of different districts, especially when viewed in relation to health. Some places, as Bidi, for example, are notoriously unhealthy; but from the statistics of the Dutch Government it appears that the European has in general no more to fear in Borneo than in the island of Java. Among the native races the prevailing diseases are principally those that arise from tad food or want of cleanliness. Scrofula is common throughout the 