22 Geological and Statistical Account of the [Jan. 



that quarter. The structure of both is alike throughout ; the sandstone 

 occurring in large disintegrated masses, rounded by the weather, and 

 looselv embedded in the argillaceous soil that forms the surface of 

 these hills. Here and there some appearance of stratification is ob- 

 served ; the sandstone dipping to the S. W. at an angle of 75 or 80°. 

 This order of stratification is most perceptible on the sea beach, where 

 the ranges in question are united with the reefs. The sandstone is 

 here of a grey colour, of a somewhat laminar structure, and in some 

 places so much decomposed by the action of the water as to approach 

 the nature of an aluminous schist. Progressing with the range, it 

 assumes a brown or yellow colour, is of a fine texture, and occasion- 

 ally interspersed with minute scales of mica. The surface of these 

 hills being composed of a stratum of clay, the ground at their base is 

 continually receiving a deposit of the same nature, affording oppor- 

 tunities for cultivation, and forming a striking contrast with the soil 

 in the immediate vicinity of the cantonment. This alluvial deposit 

 sometimes attains to the consistence of a yellow clay, sufficiently plas- 

 tic for the fabrication of bricks and earthen vessels. Beyond this 

 sandstone range, and bordering upon the village of Khyouk Phyoo, 

 the ground is still of that low diluvial nature which indicates the 

 transition it has undergone ; in some places, intersected by narrow 

 creeks accessible to the tide, and every where covered with a thick 

 jungle of mangroves and marine plants. At the village of Khyouk 

 Phyoo there occurs an isolated hill, composed entirely of a soft grey sand- 

 stone, which had once formed part of some continued range, and was 

 subsequently torn asunder by the sea on its retiring from the island ; 

 it is one of the many instances that may be observed in Rambree of the 

 denudating effects of the waters of the ocean at a period that they 

 were subject to some violent commotion, produced probably by the 

 sudden rise of mountains from beneath. 



January 12th, 1834. — Leaving Khyouk Phyoo at an early hour, and 

 proceeding along the beach with the Saddle and Knot Islands on the 

 right, my route lay towards the villages of Membraan and Kyou- 

 prath ; loose blocks of standstone, rounded by the sea, and apparent- 

 ly forming part of an under-stratum, extending to the Saddle and 

 Knot Islands, cross the beach in several places for the first few miles 

 of the road. The sandstone is of a grey colour, soft, gritty, and 

 frequently intersected with veins of calc-spar ; I observed crystals of 

 iron pyrites on the surface of some of these stones, and red spots 

 on others, perhaps the result of aqueous deposition. The sandstones 

 in Arracan appear to contain much iron, in different stages of oxida- 

 tion. 



