nder coco-palm.

The next day the steamer _Moldavia_ (also belonging to the P. & O.)
arrived from England, and was moored close to the _Delhi_ in order to
transfer to her passengers and goods for the Far East, after which the
_Moldavia_ was to continue her voyage for two weeks more to Australia.
When all is ready the _Delhi_ swings out to sea again, the band of the
_Moldavia_ playing a march and her crew and passengers cheering. In the
evening we double the southern point of Ceylon, turning due east--a
course we shall hold as far as the northern cape of Sumatra, 1000 miles
away.

THE SUNDA ISLANDS

On the morning of October 21 all field-glasses are pointed eastwards.
Two small, steep islands stand up out of the sea, a white ring of surf
round their shores, and beyond them several other islands come into
sight, their woods ever green in the perpetual summer of these hot
regions. Now islands crop up on all sides, and we are in the midst of
quite an archipelago. To the south-west we can see rain falling over
Sumatra.

Asia is the largest continent of the world. It has three other divisions
of the world as its neighbours, Europe, Africa, and Australia, and Asia
is more or less connected with these, forming with them the land of the
eastern hemisphere, while America belongs to the western hemisphere.
Europe is so closely and solidly connected with Asia that it may be said
to be a peninsula of it. Africa is joined to Asia by an isthmus 70 miles
broad, which since 1869 has been cut through by the Suez Canal. On the
other hand, Australia is like an enormous island, and lies quite by
itself; the only connection between it and Asia consists of the two
series of large islands and innumerable small ones which rise above the
surface of the intervening sea. The western chain consists of the Sunda
Islands, the eastern of the Philippines and New Guinea. Sumatra is the
first island of the immense pontoon bridge which extends south-eastwards
from the Malay Peninsula. The next is Java, and then follows a row of
medium-sized islands to the east.

[Illustration: THE SUNDA ISLANDS.]

The animal and vegetable life of these islands is very abundant. In
their woods live elephants, rhinoceroses, and tapirs; in the brushwood
lurk tigers and panthers; and in the depths of their primeval forests
dwell monkeys of various species. The largest is the orang-utang, which
grows to a height of five feet, is very strong, savage and dangerous,
and