218 GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE. 



something all the day long, and there was too much 

 noise." 



I walked two or three miles out of the town, in 

 different directions, mingling as much as possible 

 with the inhabitants, They seemed at first rather 

 shy of strangers, but were won directly by a few 

 kind words. The females seemed to keep them- 

 selves more secluded than in Java. The presence 

 of the squadron however, was no doubt in some 

 measure the cause of this, as they complained much 

 of the sailors, who as they told me came ashore 

 and got drunk, and forced themselves into the houses. 

 When alone I was every where received with great 

 kindness and civility. 



The rocks of the neighbourhood were red and 

 white clays and sands, the latter passing sometimes 

 into an argillaceous sandstone, that was often 

 highly ferruginous. Some of the eminences con- 

 sisting of this ferruginous sandstone were strewed 

 with nodular concretions of ironstone. I could see 

 no fossils anywhere. This formation greatly re- 

 resembled that about Port Essington and the north 

 coast of Australia. Some of the more ferruginous 

 hills formed a rocky and barren soil, but that of the 

 flats and lower portion was black, deep and rich 

 looking. Mr. Salmond, the Senior Resident Coun- 

 cillor, told me the soil of the district generally was 

 richer than that of Singapore, and well adapted for 

 the growth of sugar and other tropical produce, on 



