Oh. IV.] BOULDEES AT TAM-SUT. 61 



width, affording good anchorage for large vessels. Imme- 

 diately upon the left-hand on entering, there is a small 

 Chinese fort ; and half a mile higher are the ruins of an old 

 Dutch casemate — a square, red-brick building, once no 

 doubt of considerable strength, and elevated 50 or 60 ft. 

 above the water's edge. 



This elevated right bank, upon which the town stands, 

 presents very remarkable features. It rises in an imdulating 

 manner for about 100 ft., and is entirely composed of allu- 

 vial clay, containing a vast number of boulders of stone. 

 These boulders are of the most various sizes, from such as 

 can be easily lifted by the hand, to large blocks of 20 ft. in 

 circumference. They are also of very varied forms — some 

 being round and smooth, and evidently more or less rolled ; 

 while others are quite angular, and have little or no appear- 

 ance of having been water-worn. I carefully examined 

 many of these blocks to see if I could discover any traces of 

 striation which could be attributed to glacial action, but 

 although I met with some suspicious markings, I could not 

 satisfy myself that they were scored by the agency of ice. 

 Moreover, there was no marked difference in the various 

 boulders as to their lithological character, but to all appear- 

 ance they were, with little exception, formed of the ordinary 

 pebble green-stone. 



This alluvial soil is very fertile, and the undulatory cha- 

 racter of the ground gives considerable picturesqueness to 

 the neighbourhood of Tam-suy. Houses are scattered about 

 on the hill-sides, and a large amphitheatre just outside the 

 town forms a spacious and well-filled burial-ground, consist- 

 ing of an immense assemblage of the characteristic forms of 

 Chinese graves. These are mostly of the horse-shoe form, 

 or rather omega-shaped, and vary in elaborate and compli- 



