Java lies between 105° 10' and 114° 34' E. long., and between 5° 52' and 8° 46' S. lat. Its greatest length— measured from Pepper Bay in the west to Banyuwangi in the east—amounts to no less than 622 miles; its greatest breadth—from Cape Bugel in Japara to the south coast of Jokjokarta—is only 121. The area is estimated at 49,176 square miles, nearly four times that of Holland (12,731 square miles). Both physically and administratively the island of Madura, separated from the main island by a narrow strait, must be taken along with Java; and the same is more or less the case with a number of smaller islands—Pulo Panitan or Princes’ Island, lying off the most western promontory, the Thousand Islands, the Karimon-Djawa (Carimon Java) archipelago, about 50 miles to the north of Japara, Bawean (Bavean), a little further to the north of Madura, the Sumanap islands to the north-east of Madura, and Deli, Tindjil, Nusa Kambangan, Sempu, and Nusa Barung off the south coast. These all being included, the area of what is officially known as Java and Madura amounts to 51,961 square miles.

There is a striking difference between western and eastern Java in the main features of relief. The western portion, exclusive of the northern alluvial coast-land, is a compact mass of mountains culminating in volcanic peaks nowhere interrupted by plains or lowland valleys. In the eastern and larger portion the volcanoes rise in independent clusters, and the valleys between open out into wide champaigns. Even in the east the number of volcanic eminences is exceptionally large; and, if the whole island be taken into view, there is scarcely any region of the world of equal extent which can boast of so many. The following are those which are still in a state of activity :—Gedé (the most western), Tangkuban Prahu, Guntur, Pepandayan, Telaga Bodas, Galung-gung, Tjermé, the Slamat (sometimes called Gedé), Sendârâ, Sumbing, Merapi, Lawu, Wilis (?), Kelut, Ardjunâ, Kawi (1), Tenger, Smeru or Semeru, Lamongan, Rawun, and Idjen. The loftiest of them all is Semeru, with a height of 12,238 English feet.

The central ridge, in which, with the single exception of Muriâ, all the volcanic peaks are situated, contains a large number of other summits upwards of 6000 feet in height, and several—such as Wallet, Pangerangu, Merbabu, Gunong Butak, G. Weliran, G. Argowulan, the Yang (Jang) mountains, G. Rαnte—rise beyond 9000 feet. On both the north and south sides the volcanic chain is flanked by ranges composed of Tertiary rocks; these attain an elevation on the south frequently of between 2000 and 4000 feet, and occasionally in the Preanger Regencies of 5000 or 6000 feet. To the northern flanking range belongs the whole of the island of Madura, which has its highest point in Gunong Tambuko (1541 feet). The northern versant of Java differs from the southern in the great development of its alluvial border, which in one or two places widens out into considerable plains, and from this it naturally results that the streams flowing into the Sea of Java are both in length of course and volume of water more important than those that fall into the Indian Ocean. Their number in both cases is very great; but none even of the northern streams are navigable for vessels of burden, and only a , few for boats beyond the reach of the tide. They are all more or less obstructed by mud or sandbanks at their mouths. In the Sunda lands the river names are usually introduced by Tji, the Sunda word for river; the equivalent Kali is prefixed less frequently to the names in the Javanese portions of the island. The largest and in some aspects the most useful of all the rivers is the Bengawan, or river of Solo, so called from Solo, the popular name of the city of Surakarta. It is in the residency of Surakarta that it takes its rise in the plain bounded by Merapi on the W., by Lawu on the E., and by Gunong Kidul on the S., and it flows through the residencies of Madiun, Reinbang, and Surabaya. Except for the last three months of the dry season it is navigable for large boats, and during the whole year for small ones. Next in magnitude to the Solo is the Brautas, called in its lower part the Kalimas, and by Europeans the river of Surabaya Both rivers debouch into the strait of Madura, and the rapid formation of alluvial deposits in the neighbourhood of their mouths gives abundant proof of their disintegrating agency. In 1818 the largest vessels were able to anchor in the roadstead of Surabaya; by 1825 considerable caution had to be observed; and it speedily became evident that the northern approach would soon be completely closed. Between 1850 and 1854 the lower part of the Solo river was diverted into a new channel, and a permanent fairway seemed to be secured. But the condition of the strait has again been the object of solicitude, and two different schemes have been under consideration for the removal of the lower course of the river still further to the north. * All along the north coast of Java similar accretions of land are taking place; and steam dredgers have to be kept at work in all the important harbours.

The endless disturbances produced in the original condition of the strata by the continued activity of the volcanic forces render the task of the geologist peculiarly difficult. The volcanic rocks for the most part appear to rest on sedimentary rocks, and these in their turn are pretty certainly supported by granite and syenite. That the sedimentary rocks should all (the modern alluvium of course being excluded) be assigned to the Tertiary period was argued by Junghuhn from the fact that in spite of their difference in composition and character they all contain the same class of fossils; but a few striking examples of fossils and formations that must belong to the diluvial division of the Quarternary period have been pointed out by Staring and Verbeek. Throughout the rocks remains of vertebrates are exceedingly scarce; but of invertebrates there is a great profusion.

In keeping with its geological structure, Java appears in general to be in the matter of economic minerals the poorest of the great islands of the archipelago. Coal is very common, in thin strata and small “pockets,” both in Java itself and in Madura and the lesser islands, but it has hitherto been found impossible to turn it to any considerable account. A variety of clays fit for bricks, earthenware, and porcelain, a peculiar kind of clay (ampo) eaten as a dainty by the natives, good limestone and marble, petroleum, and sulphur have been more or less regularly worked. Salt is obtained from the mud wells of Kuwu and Selo (Samarang), and saltpetre at Sutji in the department of Gresik.

Climate.— Java being situated but a short distance from the equator, with the wide expanse of the Indian Ocean extending to the south, the climate is one of tropical heat and moisture.

At Batavia, the only place where a long series of meteorological observations is available, the greatest maximum temperature of the air between 1866 and 1878 was 96’08 Fahr., in November 1877, and the lowest minimum 66 02, in September of the same year. The mean temperature during the same period was 78’69. Taking the monthly means we find January 77’48, February 77'52, March 78'24, April 79’34, May 79’59, June 78’83, July 78’25, August 79’14, September 79’35, October 79’50, November 79’23, December 77’86. It is this long unbroken continuity of high temperatures which proves trying to the European constitution, for the new-comer seldom feels himself much oppressed by the heat. The maximum daily temperature occurs in January, June, and July at 2 o’clock and in the other months at 1 o’clock p.m. The highest maximum of barometric pressure recorded between 1866 and 1878 was 30 inches in July 1877, and the lowest minimum 29’64 inches in December 1870. In the ten years 1866-1875 the difference between the highest daily mean and the lowest was only 0’295 of an inch.

Java is situated in the region of the south-east trade wind, and that is the prevailing direction of the wind during one half of the year, from April to October. During the other half of the year a north-west or west wind (the physical continuation of the north-east trade wind) blows with nearly equal steadiness. The former period is known as the dry season or east monsoon, and the latter as the rainy season or the west monsoon. The distinction between the dry and the rainy seasons is most marked in the eastern portion of the island; and indeed when we come as far west as Batavia it cannot be said that there is any part of the year altogether free from rain. During the dry season the well-known phenomenon of land and sea breezes is very distinctly exhibited; during the rainy season, through obvious causes, the alternation becomes much less regular.

In a country of such bold and varied relief as Java, the rainfall naturally differs very strikingly according to locality both in annual amount and in distribution in time. In 1878, for example, the number of rainy days (Natuurk. Tijds. voor Ned. Ind., 1880) was for Batavia (at 23 feet above the sea-level) 131, at Buitenzorg (1069 feet) 220, at Wiradessa in Pekalongan (at the sea-level) 118, and so on. According to the Batavian observations for 1864-1878, the following figures show the annual rainfall:— [table]

This gives a mean annual fall of 75 ’ 89 inches. During these fifteen years the largest amount registered for any twenty-four hours was 6'9 inches; and during the thirteen years from 1866 to 1878 the largest amount registered in any single hour was 3 ’ 6 inches. More than half of the annual amount of rain on an average falls in the three months December, January, and February. The following figures are the percentages for all the months according to the 1864-1878 observations :— [table]

Between 1867 and 1877 1041 thunderstorms were observed at Batavia,—November, December, and January being the months with the greatest number, and June, July, and August those with the least. Vegetation.— The vegetation of Java is rich and diversified. Few of the plants being deciduous, the island at all times presents the same appearance as the most fertile temperate regions at the height of summer. The villages and even the smaller towns are in great measure concealed from view by the abundant and abiding verdure; and their position in the landscape is to be recognized mainly by the different appearance presented by their groves and orchards. The character of the vegetation as a matter of course varies with the character of the soil; but at once more obvious and more general are the modifications conditioned by increase of elevation. Junghuhn divided the island into four botanical zones, and his division has been commonly adopted by his successors. The first or tropical zone extends from the seaboard to a height of 2000 feet; the second or that of moderate heat has its upper limit at a height of about 4500 feet; the third or comparatively cool region reaches a height of 7500 feet; and the fourth or coldest region comprises all that lies above that elevation. It need hardly be added that the lines of demarcation are far from rigid, and, if they were to follow the actual appearance of certain definite vegetable forms, would ‘dip and rise at every advance. It is at once evident also that from the structure of the island the lowest zone has by far the most extensive area; the second indeed is only a fiftieth of the first, and the third is only a five-thousandth. The lowest zone is the region of the rice-fields and sugar plantations, of cocoa-nuts, cinnamon, and cotton. According to their character the coasts are fringed with mangroves, nipah, and other palm trees, and the kayu gabas (Alstonia scholaris) ; the ponds and lakelets are covered with Utricu- lamae and lotus flowers; vast prairies are clothed with the silvery alang-alang grass, broken by thickets of bamboos and patches of the taller eri grass and glagah. The second zone is the region more especially of the coffee and the tea plantations, of the areng or sugar palm, and of maize. In the forests there is a great profusion of woody lianas, rotangs, and cissus varieties. In the third zone, which consists mainly of the slopes of volcanic mountains, but also comprises a few plateaus, there is little cultivation except in the Tenger mountains, where the natives raise Indian corn, cabbage, and potatoes, and at Simpungan

(the highest village in Java, 6680 feet) on the Dieng plateau, where even tobacco is most successfully cultivated. The fourth zone, so far as phanerogamous plants are concerned, has a very restricted vegetation, somewhere about one hundred species being known; but there is a corresponding abundance of cryptogams: fungi are common, and mosses cover the ground and invest the trees. The whole flora of this upper region bears a strong European cast.

According to a writer in the Tijdschrift van Nijverheid en Landbοuw, 1879, not less than one-fourth to one-fifth of the area of Java is still covered with forest, in spite of the fact that in various quarters reckless destruction has been allowed to go on. The abundant moisture of the vegetation happily prevents the spread of the fires by which the natives often clear the prairies or jungles. Extensive tracts of virgin forest exist, more particularly in the south of the residencies of Bantam, the Preanger Regencies, Banyumas, Pasuruan, Kediri, Probolingo, Besuki, and Banyuwangi; and many of the principal mountains—G. Ayang, G. Tjermé, G. Slamat, G. Wilis, G. Ardjunâ, G. Raon, &c.—still preserve their natural covering of luxuriant foliage. In the first zone the forests are largely composed of Magnoliaceae and Anonaceae ; but the loftiest trees are rather the Mimusops acuminata, the Spathodea gigantea, and the Irina glabra, which reach a height of 120 feet. In the second zone the first rank must be given to the rasamala (Liguidambar Altingia), the trunks of which run straight up for 90 or 100 feet before they break into branches. The tree, however, is only found in the Preanger Regencies and the contiguous portions of Buitenzorg. Among the other trees more generally characteristic of the zone are the puspa (Schima Noronhae), yielding fine, red, heavy timber, the ki sapi (Gordonia excelsa), the gad ok (Bischofia javanica), the bayur (Pterospermum Blumeanum), and Epicharis densiflora. Throughout the greater part of both the lower regions the banyan-tree and several closely allied forms are extremely common.

Hitherto comparatively little advantage has been taken of the Javanese wealth of timber. If the native states and Madura be left out of account, all the woods and forest, with the exception of such portions as have been formally disposed of to private possessors, are considered as Government property, and are managed under a new system introduced in 1874. By this the teak forests or plantations are singled out for particular treatment. They exist in the residencies of Tagal, Samarang, Japara, Surabaya, Madiun, Kediri, and are estimated to occupy 2300 square miles. The seaports where the timber trade is chiefly carried on are Batavia, Samarang, Surabaya, and Gresik. The net profit realized by the Government from the forest department was only £58,000 in 1879.

Reforesting has been commenced in various places—more particularly on the Sumbing, Sendârâ, Merbabu, and Unarang. The Eucalyptus globulus, the juar (Cassia florida, Vahl), a rapidly growing tree indigenous to Sumatra, and the surian (Cedrela febrifuga, Bl.), are being largely employed by the Government for this purpose.

Zoology.— In respect of its fauna, Java differs from Borneo, Sumatra, and the Malay peninsula far more than these differ among themselves; and at the same time it shows close resemblances—not exhibited by Borneo and Sumatra—to the Siamese peninsula and also to the Himalayas. No genus and only five or six of the ninety species of Javanese mammals are confined to the island; and of the two hundred and seventy species of land birds only forty are peculiar. Thirteen genera of mammals, including the elephant, the tapir, and the Malay bear, found in the rest of the Malay region, are altogether absent; and twenty-five Malayan genera of birds—comprising jays, gapers, bee-eaters, woodpeckers, hornbills, cuckoos, pheasants, and partridges—are in like case.

The Javanese rhinoceros, the largest of the mammals in the island, differs from that of Sumatra in having only one horn instead of two. It ranges over the highest mountains, and its regular paths— worn into deep channels—may be traced up the steepest slopes and round the rims of even active volcanoes. Of wild swine there are two species, Sus vittatus in the hot region and Sus verrucosus in the temperate. Both are extremely abundant, and their depredations are the cause of much loss; in the residency of Japara, for instance, upwards of five thousand have been killed in two months. Not much less than the rhinoceros is the banting or Bos sundaicus, to be found in all the uninhabited districts between 2000 and 7000 feet oι elevation. The kidang or mintjac (Cervulus muntjac) and the rusa (Rusa hippclaρhus) are the chief representatives of the deer kind; the former is a delicate little creature occurring singly or in pairs both in the mountains and in the coast districts; the latter, living in herds of from fifty to one hundred in the grassy “opens,” gives excellent sport to the native hunters. The kantjil CΓragulus jaυanicus) is little bigger than a hare. The royal tiger—the same species as that of India—is still frequent enough in the forests to make a tiger-hunt a characteristic Javanese scene, and to permit the native princes to exhibit at times a tiger and buffalo fight. The leopard is also common: in the warm region specimens are occasionally found in which the coat is almost uniformly black, the spots, however, being visible on inspection. In the tree tops, the birds find a treacherous enemy in the matjan rempak or wild cat (Felis minuta or Leop>ardus javanensis), about the size of a common cat, with the markings of its larger namesake. The dog-tribe is represented by the fox-like adjag (Canis rutilans'), which hunts in ferocious packs.

The Cheiroptera hold a prominent place in the fauna. Remarkable especially for size is the kalong or flying-fox (Pteropus edulis), a fruit-eating bat, which may be seen hanging during the day in black clusters asleep on the trees, and in the evening hastening in dark flocks to its favourite feeding grounds in the forest. The damage these do to the young cocoa-nut trees, the maize, and the sugar-palm leads the native to snare and shoot them; and their flesh is good to eat. Smaller kinds of bats are not less abundant,— perhaps the most common species being the Nycticejus TemminckH. In certain places they congregate in myriads like seafowl on the cliffs, and their excrements produce extensive guano deposits, which the natives of Surakarta and Madiun, for example, utilize as sources of saltpetre. The house of Canneman, near Besuki, is the chosen haunt of a monstrous colony which have successfully defied all efforts made to expel them. The creature known to the Europeans as a flying cat, and to the natives as the kubin, is the Galeopithecus variegatus, marking a sort of transition from the bats to the lemuroids. Of these last Java has several species, held in awe by the natives for their supposed power of fascination. The apes are represented by the wou-wou (fl·ylobates leuciscus), the lutung, and kowi (Presbytes maurus ηηά pyrrhus), the surili (Presbytes mitratus), anl, most general of all, Macacus cynornolgus. The existence of bands of the wou-wous is only too distinctly proved in the second zone by the loud and cacophonous outcry from which their name is derived. The lutung or...