speech in the spring of 1906) to rally to a radical programme which had no socialist Utopia in view; and the appearance in him of a strong and practical radical leader had the result of considerably diminishing the effect of the socialist propaganda. M. Jaurès, in addition to his daily journalistic activity, published Les preuves; affaire Dreyfus (1900); Action socialiste (1899); Études socialistes (1902), and, with other collaborators, Histoire socialiste (1901), &c.
JAVA, one of the larger islands of that portion of the Malay
Archipelago which is distinguished as the Sunda Islands. It
lies between 105° 12′ 40″ (St Nicholas Point) and 114° 35′ 38″ E.
(Cape Seloko) and between 5° 52′ 34″ and 8° 46′ 46″ S. It has
a total length of 622 m. from Pepper Bay in the west to Banyuwangi
in the east, and an extreme breadth of 121 m. from Cape
Bugel in Japara to the coast of Jokjakarta, narrowing towards
the middle to about 55 m. Politically and commercially it is
important as the seat of the colonial government of the Dutch
East Indies, all other parts of the Dutch territory being
distinguished as the Outer Possessions (Buitenbezittungens).
According to the triangulation survey (report published in 1901)
the area of Java proper is 48,504 sq. m.; of Madura, the large
adjacent and associated island, 1732; and of the smaller islands
administratively included with Java and Madura 1416, thus
making a total of 50,970 sq. m. The more important of these
islands are the following: Pulau Panaitan or Princes Island
(Prinseneiland), 47 sq. m., lies in the Sunda Strait, off the south-western
peninsula of the main island, from which it is separated
by the Behouden Passage. The Thousand Islands are situated
almost due N. of Batavia. Of these five were inhabited in 1906
by about 1280 seafarers from all parts and their descendants.
The Karimon Java archipelago, to the north of Semarang,
numbers twenty-seven islands with an area of 16 sq. m. and a
population of about 800 (having one considerable village on the
main island). Bavian[1] (Bawian), 100 m. N. of Surabaya, is a
ruined volcano with an area of 73 sq. m. and a population of
about 44,000. About a third of the men are generally absent as
traders or coolies. In Singapore and Sumatra they are known as
Boyans. They are devout Mahommedans and many of them
make the pilgrimage to Mecca. The Sapudi and Kangean
archipelagoes are eastward continuations of Madura. The former,
thirteen in all, with an area of 58 sq. m. and 53,000 inhabitants,
export cattle, dried fish and trepang; and many of the male population
work as day labourers in Java or as lumbermen in Sumbawa,
Flores, &c. The main island of the Kangians has an area
of 19 sq. m.; the whole group 23 sq. m. It is best known for
its limestone caves and its buffaloes. Along the south coast the
islands are few and small—Klapper or Deli, Trouwers or Tingal,
Nusa Kembangan, Sempu and Nusa Barung.
From Sumatra on the W., Java is separated by the Sunda Strait, which at the narrowest is only 14 m. broad, but widens elsewhere to about 50 m. On the E. the strait of Bali, which parts it from the island of that name, is at the northern end not more than 112 m. across. Through the former strong currents run for the greater part of the day throughout the year, outwards from the Java Sea to the Indian Ocean. In the strait of Bali the currents are perhaps even stronger and are extremely irregular. Pilots with local knowledge are absolutely necessary for vessels attempting either passage. In spite of the strength of the currents the Sunda Strait is steadily being diminished in width, and the process if continued must result in a restoration of that junction of Sumatra and Java which according to some authorities formerly existed.[2]
In general terms Java may be described as one of the breakwater islands of the Indian Ocean—part of the mountainous rim (continuous more or less completely with Sumatra) of the partially submerged plateau which lies between the ocean on the S. and the Chinese Sea on the N., and has the massive island of Borneo as its chief subaerial portion. While the waves and currents of the ocean sweep away most of the products of denudation along the south coast or throw a small percentage back in the shape of sandy downs, the Java Sea on the north—not more than 50 fathoms deep—allows them to settle and to form sometimes with extraordinary rapidity broad alluvial tracts.[3]
It is customary and obvious to divide Java into three divisions, the middle part of the island narrowing into a kind of isthmus, and each of the divisions thus indicated having certain structural characteristics of its own. West Java, which consists of Bantam, Krawang and the Preanger Regencies, has an area of upwards of 18,000 sq. m. In this division the highlands lie for the most part in a compact mass to the south and the lowlands form a continuous tract to the north. The main portion of the uplands consists of the Preanger Mountains, with the plateaus of Bandong, Pekalongan, Tegal, Badung and Gurut, encircled with volcanic summits. On the borders of the Preanger, Batavia and Bantam are the Halimon Mountains (the Blue Mountains of the older travellers), reaching their greatest altitudes in the volcanic summits of Gedeh and Salak. To the west lie the highlands of Bantam, which extending northward cut off the northern lowlands from the Sunda Strait. Middle Java is the smallest of the three divisions, having an area of not much more than 13,200 sq. m. It comprises Tegal, Pekalongan, Banyumas, Bagelen, Kedu, Jokjakarta, Surakarta, and thus not only takes in the whole of the isthmus but encroaches on the broad eastern portion of the island. In the isthmus mountains are not so closely massed
- ↑ It must be observed that Bavian, &c., are mere conventional appendices to Java.
- ↑ H. B. Guppy (R. S. G. Soc. Magazine, 1889) holds that there is no sufficient proof of this connexion but gives interesting details of the present movement.
- ↑ See G. F. Tijdeman’s map of the depths of the sea in the eastern part of the Indian archipelago in M. Weber’s Siboga Expedition, 1903. The details of the coast forms of the island have been studied by J. F. Snelleman and J. F. Niermeyer in a paper in the Veth Feestbundel, utilizing inter alia Guppy’s observations.
