BORNEO (a corruption of Bnrni, and this from Beruni or Bruni, the capital of the ancient sultanate of Bruni), the great island of the Malay Archipelago, and the second largest island in the world, following New Guinea. It is rudely triangular in outline, with the apex toward the north. It has the Sulu Sea and the Strait of Macassar on the east, the Java Sea on the south, and the South China Sea along the northwest. It lies between N. and 4° 20' S. lat., the equator crossing it at about its widest part, and so, that about two-thirds of its area lies in the northern hemisphere, Its greatest length is about 850 miles, and its greatest width about 600 miles, and its total area is about 290,000 square miles.
Political Having never en joyed a political entity, the island of Borneo has not had a native name. The title Borneo or Burnei (Brunei) in fact properly applied only to the Malay kingdom on the northwest coast; and Kalamantan or Kalamantin, some times quoted as a general appellation, is also of limited purport. Borneo originally included nearly the whole of the northwest of the island. The Sultan had absolute authority. In 1847 he undertook not to surrender any of his territory to any other power without the sanction of the British government. Its area was reduced to about 4.000 square miles by the erection of Sarawak, toward the southwest, into aprac tically independent principality by Sir James Brooke (1841-68), and by the establishment of the British North Borneo Company as a recog nized governing body. The company's charter, granted in 1881, transferred to them rights originally obtained by an American in 1863, and they successfully appropriated and de veloped on the northeast of Brunei a territory having an area of 31,106 square miles, with a coast line of 900 miles. This is now divided into the East Coast Residency and the prov inces of Dent, Keppel and Alcock, and has its capital at Elopura or Sandakan, the largest settlement, with 5,000 inhabifants. Sarawak has an area of about 42,000 square miles, and a mixed population numbering about 500,000. The three states, British North Borneo, Brunei and Sarawak are under British government or protectorate and constitute British Borneo. They comprise about one-fourth of the total area of the island. The remaining three-fourths — about 212,737 square miles — is ruled directly or indirectly by the Dutch, who have divided it into the residency of the Western division of Borneo, with a population of 450,930, and that of the Southern and Eastern Borneo, with a combined population of 782,722, the former having Pontianak as the seat of government, the latter Banjermassin. Besides a number of smaller dependencies, the western division con tains the kingdom of Landak, Tayan, Mampa wa, Sukadana, Simpang, Matan, Sekadow, Sintang and Sambas. Among the separate states which go to form the southern and eastern divisions are Kotaringin, Banjermassin and Martapura. In consequence of a decree of the Sultan of Banjermassin, the district watered by the Great Dyak or Kahayan is pre served for the native tribes, who in 1879 were estimated at 18,000 souls; Chinese, Malays, etc., are forbidden to ascend the river higher than the Kanpore Pilany. The same is the case with the basins of the Kapuas, Mururg, known as the Little Dyak district. The population of the whole of the Dutch portion of the island is estimated at 1,280,000, of whom about 1,600 are Europeans, 56,000 Chinese, 3,300 Arabs and miscellaneous Orientals. Among the so-called
natives are included from 200,000 to 300,000 Malays settled along the coast, who used, for merly, to be counted among the strangers. The island of Labuan, off the coast of Brunei, has belonged to the British since 1846.
Topography.— Although the neighboring islands are distinctly of volcanic origin, Borneo consists of ancient igneous rock masses, showing small traces of volcanic activity. With the exception of Kina Balu (13,700 feet), the principal mountains form several massive chains with here and there a peak rising to nearly 10,000 feet above the sea level, the ele vations diminishing toward the southward. Chief among these is the Tibang-Iran chain which constitutes the backbone of the island, ranging irregularly southwestward through its northern half, 'and continued south of the equator by the Schwaner range. Batu-Tibang (9,800 feet) is the highest peak of the former, and 5,300 feet is the highest elevation found in the latter. A second chain crosses the island from east to west about 60 miles north of the equator. These two chains practically divide the island into four main watersheds. The northwestern basin constitutes the territory of British Borneo. The other three basins com prise Dutch Borneo. In almost all sections of the island the land along the coast line is a low swampy belt, made up of the alluvial wash of the central highlands. This belt is from 10 to 50 miles in width, the larger extensions being found in the southern section, and upon the southerly portion of the east coast. Be tween the swampy coast lands and the interior heights lies an irregular zone of hill country with an average elevation of 1,000 feet above the sea, and having occasional peaks rising to 5,000 and even 6,000 feet. These uplands are of blue metamorphic limestone overlaid by a thick series of sandstones, conglomerates and clay shales. Piercing these are dykes of gran ite and porphyry. The upper layers have, in many places, been worn away, leaving exposed solitary crags of limestone. It is believed that up to a recent period of geologic time Borneo was a part of the mainland of Asia. This theory receives confirmation in the fauna of the island, which includes many species of Asiatic animals, notably the rhinoceros, the elephant, certain wild cattle, several species of deer and swine, the tiger cat and civet cat, with others of the cat tribe, the small black bear, the scaly anteater, several Asiatic lemurs and monkeys, and of greater significance than all, two of the anthropoid apes — the gibbon and the orang-outang. The prevalence of volcanic activity past and present in the archipelago offers a highly probable explana tion of a subsidence which carried down the connecting country, of which Java and Sumat ra also were highlands. It has been established that these three islands rest upon a submarine bank about 500 to 600 feet below the present sea level, and a little east of Borneo the sea bottom plunges down abruptly to a great depth. It is evident that before the alluvial plains were formed, Borneo must have pre sented an outline not unlike that of Celebes and Gilolo, a group of peninsulas radiating from the central highland.