Definition and Boundaries.--For reasons which depend mainly on
the distribution of animal life, I consider the Malay Archipelago
to include the Malay Peninsula as far as Tenasserim and the
Nicobar Islands on the west, the Philippines on the north, and
the Solomon Islands, beyond New Guinea, on the east. All the
great islands included within these limits are connected together
by innumerable smaller ones, so that no one of them seems to be
distinctly separated from the rest. With but few exceptions all
enjoy an uniform and very similar climate, and are covered with a
luxuriant forest vegetation. Whether we study their form and
distribution on maps, or actually travel from island to island,
our first impression will be that they form a connected whole,
all the parts of which are intimately related to each other.

Extent of the Archipelago and Islands.--The Malay Archipelago
extends for more than 4,000 miles in length from east to west,
and is about 1,300 in breadth from north to south. It would
stretch over an expanse equal to that of all Europe from the
extreme west far into Central Asia, or would cover the widest
parts of South America, and extend far beyond the land into the
Pacific and Atlantic oceans. It includes three islands larger
than Great Britain; and in one of them, Borneo, the whole of the
British Isles might be set down, and would be surrounded by a sea
of forests. New Guinea, though less compact in shape, is probably
larger than Borneo. Sumatra is about equal in extent to Great
Britain; Java, Luzon, and Celebes are each about the size of
Ireland. Eighteen more islands are, on the average, as large as
Jamaica; more than a hundred are as large as the Isle of Wight;
while the isles and islets of smaller size are innumerable.