LOMBOK, one of the Lesser Sunda islands, Dutch East Indies. It lies due east of Java, with the island of Bali between it and the Javanese coast, the Lombok strait separating it from Bali, with which it forms a residency. Lombok has an area of 3,136 sq. miles. It is very mountainous, being divided for nearly its whole length by two mountain chains, separated by a valley, which slopes upwards, gradually, in terrace formation, and is broken in the centre by a ridge of low hills. The southern chain, which runs from south-east to south-south-west, does not exceed 1,000 ft., but the northern chain, beginning with Gunong Wangsit, 11 m. N. of Ampenam, rises eventually to 11,800 ft. (one Dutch authority gives 12,550 ft.) in Gunong Rinjeng (the Peak of Lombok) one of the highest volcanoes of the Malay archipelago. Lower peaks flank the mountain, united by a plateau 7,200 ft. in height, and containing a fine lake, Danu (Segara Anak). Of the many small rivers none is navigable. The coast is very bold in places, with cliffs rising precipitously from the sea, but there are good anchorages in bays on the west and east coasts.
The flora includes, amongst the palms usual to the tropics, a great palm, a species of Corypha, which is a striking feature of the plains, and several Australian forms ; the fauna comprises monkeys (Macacus cynomolgus), deer, and wild pigs, and many beautiful birds, large green pigeons, eight kinds of kingfishers, a ground thrush (Pitta concinna), grass-green doves, little crimson and black flower-peckers, large black cuckoos, king-crows, golden orioles, and fine jungle-cocks, and dragon flies abound. For the scientist, Lombok possesses a very great interest, in that it is the most westerly point of a former Australian or Pacific continent which must have broken up before Java, Sumatra, Bali, etc., were separated from Asia, and probably before the extreme south eastern portion of Asia was raised above the waters of the ocean. Lombok strait, which has depths exceeding 600 fathoms, marks the edge of the Asian continental shelf. Wallace drew a line from the strait northwards, between Celebes and Borneo, and then passing eastwards, between the Sangir islands and Mindanao, into the Pacific ocean, to denote the frontier between the Asian and the Australian regions, which has been known since as the Wallace line. It is supported by the fact that there are marked differences
between the flora and fauna of Bali and Lombok, the barbets, fruit-thrushes, and woodpeckers of the former being practically unknown in the latter, whilst the cockatoos, honeysuckers, and mound-builders (Megapodidae), of Lombok are equally foreign to Bali. Recent observations however have established that some intermingling of species is taking place, and it has been ascertained since Wallace's time that the line cannot be applied strictly to all forms of life, and that to spiders, for instance, it cannot be applied at all, so that, to be exact, Lombok, in a biological sense, denotes the commencement of a transitional area in which the Asiatic forms of life are gradually supplanted completely by Australian forms.
The population of Lombok is 599,544 (120 Europeans and Eurasians), composed very largely of Sasaks, the indigenous in habitants of the island, of Malayan origin, and akin to the indigenous population of the neighbouring island of Sumbawa, with some Balinese who confine themselves mostly to the north west. The Sasaks are Mohammedan and a clean and industrious folk, with villages and houses built after the Balinese pattern, and with customs resembling those of the Balinese under whose dom ination they live. Sasaks use the Balinese script for writing and their literature consists of Javanese and Malayan translations. Industry has reached a fairly high level, clothes and mats are woven, there are workers in gold, silver, and iron, and the people are clever as agriculturists, their rice and coffee cultivation having reached a fairly advanced stage. There are some Chinese traders. Mataram is the capital and headquarters of administration, a short distance inland from Ampenam, the chief port of Lombok, which is on the western coast ; landing there is difficult during the west monsoon. From Ampenam and the port of Labuan Hadji, on the east coast, a frequent steamer service is maintained by the Dutch Royal Packet Navigation Company with Bali and Java ports, Celebes (Macassar), and with Sumbawam Sumba, Flores and Timor. There is good road communication but no railway, and there is cable connection with Java, via Bali.