of the Island of Sumatra, S^c. 189 



Siak and Iiidragiri ; il has its origin in the easternmost hills 

 which bound the province of Rana-lima-pulo, and does not 

 l)enetrate beyond them into the more elevated country of the 

 " Darat." 



As a detailed account of the journey to Menangkabau, and 

 of the observations made during the course of it, will probably 

 be given by Dr. Horsfield, who accompanied Sir T. S. Raffles 

 on that occasion, I shall here only remark generally, that gra- 

 nite was observed on both sides of the lake ; sometimes pass- 

 ing into gneiss and micaceous schistus, and at others associated 

 with marble and limestone, or with sandstone ; that basaltic 

 and trap rocks were abundant; and that obsidian, lava, and 

 pumice were observed in the valley of the Tigablas. 



The country to the southward of Padang, as far nearly as 

 Indrapore, is a confused assemblage of hills, which come di- 

 rectly down to the sea ; and the whole coast is broken into 

 innumerable bays and islands. Through the greater part of 

 these the mountain masses of rock are composed of a kind of 

 trap or amygdaloid, containing, in a cement of a grayish- 

 brown colour, numerous small fragments or nodules of other 

 rocks, so firmly united that the fracture takes place through 

 both indiscriminately, and so hard as often to ring under the 

 hammer. Padang head is chiefly composed of trap ; it also 

 furnishes pebbles of chalcedony and large crystals of quartz. 



From Indrapore to Bencoolen the range of hills runs nearly 

 parallel to the coast, leaving a belt of lower, but not level land 

 between them and the sea, whose action has exposed a long 

 range of cliffs composed of a stiff dark-red clay. Behind the 

 first range of hills to the east of Moco Moco lies the country 

 of Korinchi, in which there is a considerable lake, which was 

 first visited by Dr. Campbell in 1 800, and by him named 

 Lake George. It was again visited by the directions of Sir 

 T. S. Raffles in 1818, and the party proceeded as far as Pen- 

 kalan Iambi. From the observations then made, it appears 

 that the lake is much nearer the western coast, and more to 

 the southward than is laid down by Marsden ; and that a cul- 

 tivated valley lies to the north of it, watered by a small river, 

 which descends to the lake from Gunong Api, a high volcanic 

 mountain constantly smoking, and distant about sixty miles 

 north-east of Indrapore point. The small lake noticed by 

 Marsden, which should also have been placed to the north- 

 ward, was dried up about ten years since, by the effect of an 

 eartluiuake. Lake George gives out a considerable stream at 

 its southern end, which, passing through the district of Pen- 

 kahiii Iambi, becomes one of the principal branches of the 

 river Iambi. 



The 



