Geology of Malta The largest of the second set are the Victoria Lines Fault on northern Malta and the Qala Fault on southern Gozo. Overall, the islands of the archipelago are tilted towards the northeast, with cliffs on the southwest coast and descending gradients towards the northeast. The Maltese archipalego is linked to Sicily by an underwater plateau of depths of less than 100 m. During different marine regressions of the Mediterranean, Malta has been connected to Sicily by a surface isthmus by which animals have been able to cross, as evinced by the presence of island dwarfism (Maltese dwarf hippopotamus and dwarf
The Malay Archipelago among other things the inspiration for the character Stein the entomologist. Conrad's assistant Richard Curle wrote that "The Malay Archipelago" was Conrad's favourite bedside book; Conrad refers directly to what he calls Alfred Wallace's famous book on the Malay Archipelago in The Secret Agent. In his short story, "Neil MacAdam", W. Somerset Maugham has the title character read "The Malay Archipelago" while travelling to Borneo, and its influence can be felt in the story's description of that island. More recently, the book has influenced a number of non-fiction books including "The Song of the Dodo" by David Quammen (1997), which