The absolute extent of land in the Archipelago is not greater
than that contained by Western Europe from Hungary to Spain; but,
owing to the manner in which the land is broken up and divided,
the variety of its productions is rather in proportion to the
immense surface over which the islands are spread, than to the
quantity of land which they contain.

Geological Contrasts.--One of the chief volcanic belts upon the
globe passes through the Archipelago, and produces a striking
contrast in the scenery of the volcanic and non-volcanic islands.
A curving line, marked out by scores of active, and hundreds of
extinct, volcanoes may be traced through the whole length of
Sumatra and Java, and thence by the islands of Bali, Lombock,
Sumbawa, Flores, the Serwatty Islands, Banda, Amboyna, Batchian,
Makian, Tidore, Ternate, and Gilolo, to Morty Island. Here there
is a slight but well-marked break, or shift, of about 200 miles
to the westward, where the volcanic belt begins again in North
Celebes, and passes by Sian and Sanguir to the Philippine Islands
along the eastern side of which it continues, in a curving line,
to their northern extremity. From the extreme eastern bend of
this belt at Banda, we pass onwards for 1,000 miles over a non-
volcanic district to the volcanoes observed by Dampier, in 1699,
on the north-eastern coast of New Guinea, and can there trace
another volcanic belt through New Britain, New Ireland, and the
Solomon Islands, to the eastern limits of the Archipelago.

In the whole region occupied by this vast line of volcanoes, and
for a considerable breadth on each side of it, earthquakes are of
continual recurrence, slight shocks being felt at intervals of
every few weeks or months, while more severe ones, shaking down