ii “' 
the same shallow ground while heavy seas rolled over it. As regards 
both the shoals and the notched sides of conical accumulations, the 
outside of the barrier or atoll reefs would plunge into deep water. 
In making these remarks we by no means doubt the correctness of 
Mr. Darwin’s reasoning respecting the effects of depression m the 
formation of coral lagoon islands and barrier reefs; on the contrary, 
we coincide with his views, the application of which can scarcely but be 
correct in so many instances. The foregoig appeared to us, however, 
to be conditions which might often obtaim, and that therefore they 
were deserving of consideration, to be taken, with other conditions, 
for what they ‘night be worth, it being so desirable that in questions 
of this kind the subject should be regarded from all pomts, and that 
the various probable causes should be considered in our pursuit of 
that truth which it ought to be our constant endeavour to attain. 
In the account of the voyage of the Samarang, under the com- 
mand of Sir E. Belcher, there are several scattered notices respecting 
the rocks observed at different places, such as the raised coralline 
limestone of the west side of Abayat, near Batan between Formosa 
and the Philippmes, the basaltic character of Hoa-pin-san, the 
igneous rocks of Quelpart and the Korean Islands, and others. 
Numerous remarks upon the habits of various marie animals, which 
by application may have geological value, are given by Mr. Adams, 
who accompanied the expedition. Sir E. Belcher notices banks of 
mud, at the Sabanon mouth of the Balungan River, east coast of 
Borneo, covered by a livmg pavement of oysters, their hinges in the 
mud, and their mouths upwards. 
In lat. 6° 14’ S. and long. 4° 41’ W. bottom was struck at 9690 
feet; four days previously no bottom was found with a lme of 
18, 390 feet. It is very desirable that soundings in the ocean should 
be multiplied. No doubt very deep soundings require calm weather 
and a considerable expenditure of time, as was necessary when 
Sir James Ross took his deep soundings in lat. 15° 3’ S., and long. 
23° 14' W., 27,600 feet of lme having been run out without finding 
bottom ; but this would be amply compensated by the knowledge 
which might be thus obtained of the inequalities of the ocean-floor. 
Two visits were made to Labuan, now a British possession, not only — 
important for its geographical position, but also for the coal dis- 
covered in it. From communications made to the Museum of Prac- 
tical Geology, chiefly from the Admiralty, we are enabled to state that 
the coal observed on the north-east coast of Labuan by Mr. Brooke (the 
Rajah of Sarawak), Captain Bethune and Mr. Wise, in March 1845, 
and a specimen of which, weighing 280 lbs., was brought by Mr. Wise 
to this country, and presented to the Museum of Practical Geology, is 
now found by Lieut. Gordon and others to form part of a nine-feet 
bed, extending from the N.E. pomt in a W.S.W. direction for about 
four and a half miles, and dipping about 24° to the S.S.E. This coal 
rests upon a clay bed, and is noticed as containing a quantity of small 
lumps, described as resin, which were not found in the specimen above 
mentioned. The coal of Labuan is merely a portion of a mass of 
associated sandstones and shales, apparently intermingled with many 
xevl PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
