1847.] including Notices of Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, fyc. 547 



and in fact derives its name from the circumstance, as it literally signi- 

 fies " Tin Hill." We thus find that what we may call the semi-volcanic 

 band of the straits of Malacca may, to a certain extent, be disconnected 

 from the Peninsula, and viewed as a chain of Islands extending proba- 

 bly from Junk-ceylon to Banca, and including the existing Islands and 

 numerous rocks and reefs in the straits of Malacca. It appears there- 

 fore, that its southern extremity is almost in contact with Sumatra,* and 

 the question arises whether its volcanic connection be not with this 

 great Island rather than the Peninsula. May it not be reasonably pre- 

 sumed that if the origin and partial elevation of the Sumatra chain was 

 contemporaneous with that of the Peninsula, the line of greatest inten- 

 sity of the subterranean forces, in whichever it was originally, was 

 ultimately determined to the latter chain, and that at some now ancient 

 era the former was left to comparative repose ? The height of the 

 plutonic mountains of the Peninsula is greatly inferior to that of the 

 mountains of Sumatra. But all the elevated peaks of the latter appear 

 to be volcanic, and perhaps the purely granitic ranges are not more 

 elevated than those of the Peninsula. The elevation of the two pluto- 

 nic ranges and t the shallow bed of the strait between them may have 

 been contemporaneous and antecedent to the period when volcanoes 

 burst out along the Sumatra chain. These volcanoes, from their num- 

 ber and power would arrest the rise of the region, or cause any subse- 

 quent elevatory movement to be rare and of small amount. Until the 

 interior of the Peninsula is explored these inquiries to a large extent 

 must be merely speculative. But it is certain that the Sumatra chain 

 has in recent eras been the seat of great volcanic energy, and that it is 

 still subject to convulsive movements, the tremors or undulations of 

 which are transmitted as far as what I have termed the semi-volcanic 

 band of the straits on the one side, and which are felt much more severe- 

 ly in the less distant chain of Islands on the west coast of Sumatra. 



Marsden states that a number of volcanoes existf and describes one 

 which opened in the side of a mountain about 20 miles inland of Ben- 

 coolen, and which during his residence at that Factory scarcely ever 

 failed to emit smoke. To the S. E. the three volcanic peaks of Gunong 



* [t will appear however in the paper formerly referred to that this approximation is 



due to modern external, not to ancient internal forces 

 | llwtory of Sumatra, p. 24. . 



