128 B. B. Newton — Geology of the Malay Peninsula. 



Lord Kelvin ' and Professor Joly agree in assuming that because 

 melted basalt is lighter than consolidated basalt the chilled surface 

 of a lava ocean would sink : Lord Kelvin further assumes that all 

 minerals crystallizing out of a melted basalt vrould also sink : 

 I would, however, venture to submit that the gases imprisoned 

 in the chilled surface layers would buoy them up, and that a good 

 many minerals, lighter than the magma, on rising to the surface 

 would form a scum or slag which, by blanketing the glowing lava, 

 would thereby check radiation. I have no especial interest in the 

 controversy as to the age of the Earth, and go no further than to 

 suggest that these points should be allowed their due weight in 

 the argument. 



The application of the above sea- water hypothesis to the cases 

 of Dartmoor and the schists is a somewhat intricate question, and 

 not worth discussing so long as the main principle is rejected. 



VII. — Notes on Literature bearing upon the Geology of 

 THE Malay Peninsula ; with an account of a Neolithic 

 Implement from that country. 

 By E. BuLLEN Newton, F.G.S., of the British Museum (Natural History). 



IN view of the interest lately shown by geologists and others 

 engaged in the Malay Peninsula through Mr. H. F. Bellamy's 

 discovery of Triassic Lamellibranchs in that area, a brief account of 

 the principal works on the geology of that portion of South-Eastern 

 Asia may prove of service. More particular reference will be made 

 to the sedimentary rocks, purely mineral papers being excluded 

 from consideration. 



One of the earliest records on this subject is by William Jack,^ 

 who in 1822 observed a red sandstone at Singapore which he regarded 

 as " the chief secondary rock " of the district. He further mentioned 

 that the Island of Penang was entirely of granitic structure. Some- 

 what later the following remarks were made by J. Crawford : ^ "At 

 Singapore a secondary formation is discoverable, and varieties of 

 sandstone and shale form the principal rocks, together with con- 

 glomerate, argillaceous sandstone and gray limestone." 



In 1847 Colonel James Low,* speaking of the same rock at 

 Singapore, stated that " the sandstone lies immediately under the 

 Oolitic beds, and would be therefore New Eed Sandstone." The 

 discovery of a bituminous coal on the southern coasts of the Island of 

 Junk-Ceylon off the Malay Peninsula was reported by J. K. Logan ^ 



' Trans. Victoria lust., vol. xxxi, p. 24. 



2 W. Jack, ' ' Notice respecting the Rocks of the Islauds of Penang and Singapore ' ' : 

 Trans. Geol. Soc. London, ser. ii, vol. i, pt. 1 (1822), p. 165. 



^ J. Crawford, " Geological Observations made on a Voyage from Bengal to Siani 

 and Cochin China" : Trans. Geol. Soc. London, ser. ii, vol. i, pt. 2 (1824), p. 406. 



* Col. Jas. Low, "Notes on the Geological Features of Singapore": Journ. 

 Indian Archipelago, vol. i (1847), p. S3. 



5 J. R. Logan, "Notice of the Discovery of Coal on one of the Islauds on the 

 Coast of the Malay Peninsula " : Quart. Joiurn. Geol. Soc, vol. iv (1848), pp. 1, 2. 

 "On the Local and Relative Geologv of Singapore, etc.": Journ. Asiatic Soc. 

 Bengal, vol. xvi (1847), pp. 519-557, 667-684. " Sketch of the Physical 



