184/.J including Notices of Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, §c. 523 



prominent range of hills rising abruptly to a height of 300 feet at 

 Tullah Blanga, which has lately been made the signal station. Towards 

 the Bukit Temah valley a broad irregular range of hills is united appa- 

 rently with the Tullah Blanga range on the N. W., and as it proceeds 

 the S. E. separates from it and gives room for a broad swampy flat, 

 from which the Singapore River flows. Nearer Town the range bifur- 

 cates, one of the forks terminating in Government Hill and the other 

 in Mount Sophia. These Hills approach close to each other, but pro- 

 ceeding inland the two divisions of the range draw further back, and a 

 secondary valley of considerable breadth, and about two miles in length, 

 is formed. The range on the N. E. of Bukit Temah valley springs from 

 Bukit Temah, and terminates in a low broad sandy elevation which 

 slopes almost insensibly till it emerges in the plain. It is in some places 

 about 1|- miles broad. The configuration of the range, — and most of the 

 others have many features in common with it, may be partially ob- 

 served in proceeding up the Bukit Temah valley. A succession of low 

 hills present their rounded ends stretching into the valley which ex- 

 • pands into the concave or sinuous hollows between them. The lateral 

 valleys thus formed are of various figures and extent. Many resemble 

 a horse shoe or amphitheatre. The upper extremities of most are of 

 this shape, and similar indentations occur in the course of the more 

 protracted, at the necks connecting the different hillocks which form 

 their sides. "When we strike across the range we are at first confused 

 by the number of hillocks and hollows only partially cleared of jungle ; 

 but under patient observation they gradually assume a certain order ; 

 about the centre of the range the ground is a comparatively elevated 

 and broad tract, but very irregular in its configuration. All these irre- 

 gularities however, it is probable, have relation to the lateral ranges. 

 These are seen to branch off to the north and south in a series of hil- 

 locks joined to each other by their sides and sometimes by an elon- 

 gated neck. Towards the valley they often bifurcate, one limb some- 

 times taking a direction parallel to the range and then sweeping round 

 and expanding into one of the broad hillocks whose ends approach the 

 public road. The peculiar character of the topography of the country 

 arises from the multitude and individual smallness of the hills, and the 

 circumstance of the valleys which penetrate between the principal ranges 

 and their branches, being, except towards the centres of the ranges, per- 



