1847.] including Notices of Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, §c. 525> 



from this range. This principal is the Soongie Saletar, which appears 

 to flow through a long valley between a branch of this range and ano- 

 ther range proceeding from the Bukit Temah group in a northerly di- 

 rection. The western side of the Island consists of several ranges radiat- 

 ing apparently from the Bukit Temah group, and penetrated by valleys, 

 some of them, such as that of the Kranjee, which flows northward to 

 the old strait, and the Joorong, which flows southward to the Salat 

 Samboolan, being of considerable length and terminating in broad 

 creeks intersecting mangrove swamps. Between some of the ranges 

 the only wide flattish tracts in the Island which are not alluvial are 

 found. The lower parts of the valleys are mostly swampy, consisting 

 of sand, clay and black peaty mud, of the latter there are considerable 

 tracts constantly moist and exhibiting an extraordinary rankness of 

 vegetation. Looking on one of these swamps covered with tall but 

 slender trees, and dense underwood growing up rapidly, and from the 

 looseness of the deep bed of black vegetable matter, — the accumulated 

 remains of their short-lived predecessors, — destined soon to fall in their 

 turn, and considering the deposits of clay and sand which accompany 

 and give rise to it, it is impossible to doubt that we see nature repeat- 

 ing the precise process by which the materials of most of the ancient 

 carboniferous strata were brought together. Towards the sea these 

 forest marshes give place to mangrove swamps. An intelligent Chinese 

 Gambier planter compares Singapore^ not inaptly, if the eastern part 

 of the Island be excluded, to an open umbrella, of which Bukit Te- 

 mah is the top and the various rivers the ribs. If we suppose the 

 Island to have been formed of a somewhat brittle material, and a 

 strong blow from beneath to have struck it at Bukit Temah, from which 

 cracks radiated in different directions, dividing or bifurcating in their 

 progress, a rude idea of the lines of hills may be formed ; or if we view 

 the Island from west to east our old comparison to the section of a tree 

 would serve us best. Bukit Temah and the adjoining hills form the stole 

 from which one main trunk, about 12 miles in length, extends to the 

 Red Cliffs with numerous branches. Several smaller trunks rise on the 

 south side of the main trunk and extend for about 6 miles in a S. E. 

 direction, also sending out a multitude of small branches. To the west 

 the roots radiate to different parts of the coast, the tap root being 

 about 7 miles long. 



