1853.] MOTLEY — GEOLOGY OB' LABUAN. 55 



feet. in. 

 9. Conglomerate of quartz, sandstone, and coal pebbles, cemented by 



very fine white sandstone, various in texture 30 



10. Blue clay 1 6 



11. Coaly earth 6 



12. Sandstone ; below, varying from fine freestone to coarse grit, and con- 



taining many particles of coal ; in the upper beds grey, very hard, 



and can be raised in large blocks 47 



13. "White clay vein 2 



14. White soft sandstone 4 6 



15. Hard blue compact clay with occasional nodules of ironstone 3 9 



16. Veiy hard blue sandstone 6 



17. Laminated sandy clay 1 10 



18. Very tough, unlaminated blue clay, rapidly decomposing in the air . . 3 3 



19. Brittle, laminated carbonaceous shale 3 



20. Coal, very compact like cannel coal 8 



21. Soft coaly iire-clay, with small nodules of ironstone 3 



22. Coal, main seam; with fossil trees and resin, and occasional water- 



worn pebbles of coal ; averaging about 11 



The coal appears to be composed, for the most part, of prostrate 

 trunks of large trees, slightly compressed, and crossing each other in 

 all directions. The fossil wood is dicotyledonous, and exactly resem- 

 bles in microscopical structure that of the Dipteraceous trees now 

 forming the mass of timber growing on the island. What makes the 

 resemblance of this coal to the wood of the Dipferacece still more 

 striking, says the author, is the existence of the thickly scattered 

 masses of semitransparent resin dispersed through its substance ; this 

 when burnt diffuses the fragrant smell of recent resin*, and is used 

 with fresh dammar in making torches. In some coal beds on the 

 River Bintulu, in Borneo, it is exceedingly plentiful. The editor of 

 the Ind. Arch. Journ. observes, that specimens of coal from Riteli, 

 on the east coast of Sumatra, near the Indrageri, contain much of 

 this resinous substance. 



feet. in. 



23. Hard carbonaceous shale, often dying out 3 



24. Blue clay, scarcely laminated, with nodules of ironstone, casts of a bi- 



valve, and remains of plants about 60 



In this bed are found occasionally erect trunks of small size, pro- 

 bably of dicotyledonous trees, and more rarely palm-trunks, also erect, 

 but silicified. Impressions of leaves are very abundant, but rarely 

 perfect. Of these, Mr. Motley states that he has " procured iden- 

 tifiable specimens of nine species of Dicotyledons, of which two so 

 closely resemble existing species of Barringtonia and a probably Dip- 

 teraceous plant which yields an oily resin, named Kruing oil, much 

 used for protecting wood, that it is difficult to believe them not iden- 

 tical." He has obtained also "two or three? species of Ferns, a 

 large flag-shaped leaf like a Crinum, and something closely resembling 

 a large thick-stemmed Usnea or Confervoid Alga. Also four or 

 perhaps five species of Palms, one flabelliform and four pinnate, one 

 of the latter very closely resembling an existing species." These 

 vegetable remains are chiefly, but not entirely, in the lower part of 



* For an account of this resin, see Kew Annals of Botany, 1852. 



