STEVENSON— INTERRELATIONS OF THE FOSSIL FUELS. 25 



proved to be 9 feet thick. Examination, microscopical and chemical, 

 showed that this peat has structure and composition wholly similar 

 to the peat of Europe, though the plants from which it is derived 

 are different.^ 



Molengraaff" studied central Borneo in 1893-94. On many 

 pages he notes the presence of marshes along the larger rivers and 

 describes them as boggy. These marshes in many cases are densely 

 wooded though frequently covered with water during several months 

 in succession. A considerable deposit of peat was seen near the 

 Tebaoeng River. In ascending Babas Hantoe, one of the Madi 

 mountains, he reached, at 500 meters above the sea, an extensive 

 plateau, on which the forest contains many conifers, these increasing 

 upward until at 700 meters they were paramount. There a soft soil 

 had been reached, mosses had appeared and the character through- 

 out was that of a forested swamp. The deeply trodden narrow 

 path wound among wet spongy cushions covered with moss until at 

 1,000 meters the area was a genuine morass and advance could be 

 made only by leaping from the root of one tree to that of another. 

 The altitude is not sufficient to remove the locality from tropical 

 conditions, as this is almost directly under the equator. On the 

 other side of the mountain, he descended into a valley, which at first 

 showed patches of marshy forest with peat. Farther down, the 

 peat patches became continuous and he soon recognized that the 

 whole of this valley and probably the whole Madi plateau are 

 covered with a marshy forest, standing in a thick layer of peat, 

 which consists of the half decayed remains of all kinds of trees, 

 shrubs and mosses, a true tropical peat bog ; but, like tropical fens 

 generally, it is composed chiefly of remains of trees, thus contrasting 

 with fens of temperate zones, which originate so frequently from 

 mosses and a limited variety of shrubs. The yellow-brown fen 

 water from this peat area flows into the Tebaoeng River. 



Koorders, as cited by Potonie, reported that, in old Javan and 



6 H. Potonie, " Die Enstehung der Steinkohle und der Kaustobiolithe 

 iiberhaupt," 5te Aufl., 1910, pp. 152-160. 



7 G. A. F. Molengraaff, " Geological Explorations in Central Borneo, 

 1893-94," Leiden, 1902, pp. 83, 84, 307, 310. The citations are from the edition 

 in English; the edition in Dutch was published in 1899. 



