Difference between revisions of "Sumatra"

<p> Including adjacent islands), after [[Borneo]] the largest of the East Indian islands, stretches SE. across the Equator between the Malay Peninsula (from whose SW. coast it is separated by the [[Strait]] of Malacca) to [[Java]] (Strait of Sunda separating them); has an extreme length of 1115 m., and an area more than three times that of England; is mountainous, volcanic, covered in central parts by virgin forest, abounds in rivers and lakes, and possesses an exceptionally rich flora and peculiar fauna; rainfall is abundant; some gold and coal are worked, but the chief products are rice, sugar, coffee, tobacco, petroleum, pepper, &c.; the island is mainly under Dutch control, but much of the unexplored centre is still in the hands of savage tribes who have waged continual warfare with their European invaders. [[Padang]] is the official Dutch capital. </p>

<p> Including adjacent islands), after [[Borneo]] the largest of the East Indian islands, stretches SE. across the Equator between the Malay Peninsula (from whose SW. coast it is separated by the [[Strait]] of Malacca) to [[Java]] (Strait of Sunda separating them); has an extreme length of 1115 m., and an area more than three times that of England; is mountainous, volcanic, covered in central parts by virgin forest, abounds in rivers and lakes, and possesses an exceptionally rich flora and peculiar fauna; rainfall is abundant; some gold and coal are worked, but the chief products are rice, sugar, coffee, tobacco, petroleum, pepper, &c.; the island is mainly under Dutch control, but much of the unexplored centre is still in the hands of savage tribes who have waged continual warfare with their European invaders. [[Padang]] is the official Dutch capital. </p>