GEOLOGY. & 



ward from Maulmain up to the base of ihe granite mountains, 

 from which the Gyaing descends, except a low range or two 

 of sandstone and clay slate ridges. 



Tavoy, on the contrary, from Siam hill, on its eastern sub- 

 burb, has precisely the opposite feature of being a continuous 

 succession of hills and valleys up to the granite mountains. 

 It is an interesting fact that this great difference in the natu- 

 ral scenery of the two provinces is almost wholly owing to the 

 presence or absence of claystone porphyry. At Tavoy, most 

 of the picturesque little hills are formed of claystone porphyry, 

 and were those hills melted down again into the bowels of the 

 earth, whence they probably came in a melted state, Tavoy 

 would offer nearly the same natural features to the eye that 

 Maulmain now does, excepting that one of the clay slate 

 ridges is a little higher than those at Maulmain. 



There is a conglomerate on the islands opposite to Pal aw, 

 and in several places on the banks of t lie Tenasserira, which 

 seems like claystone porphyry studded with fragments of other 

 rocks. It is sometimes a breccia, the fragments being angu- 

 lar bits of slate apparently of the beds below. This is most 

 usually the character of the rock on the Tenasserim ; but on 

 the islands opposite Palaw, rounded pebbles are most numer- 

 ous. In both localities the paste in which the fragments are 

 imbedded, forms the largest proportion of the rocks. 

 STRATIFIED ROCKS. 



It is worthy of remark that, beginning at Mergui, the line of 

 stratification gradually turns to the west on proceeding north, 

 like the line of the coast. At Mergui the strike of the strata 

 is about two points east of north and west of south ; at Ta- 

 voy it is two or three points west of north and east of south ; 

 at Maulmain three or four, and up the Dahgyaing five or six. 



GNEISS. 



I have seen no well marked gneiss in the provinces, but the 

 granite is in some places gneissoid. 



GoqpoSioooSii — Kyouk-hnan-bat. 



QUARTZ ROCK. 



Specimens of what most geologists have characterized as 

 greenstone, or greenstone slate, Dr. M c Clelland called " grey 



