136 ON THE PATANI. 



is crystalline and entirely altered so that all signs of stratification 

 are in most instances destroyed. Although there are some forma- 

 tions which are less altered, and where these occur we find the 

 strata dipping at a low angle to the north and tilted up to the south 

 as previously described. During my investigations I was unable to 

 obtain any evidence of organic remains. I found no fossils, and I 

 concluded that in the process of metamorphism they had all been 

 destroyed. It is but fair to say, however, that I haTe since been 

 told by Mr. C. M. Allen, who was engaged at the galena mines 

 some years ago, that he had obtained small fossil shells in the lime- 

 stone, but, so far as ruy experience goes, neither with the naked 

 eye nor with the aid of the microscope was I successful in discover- 

 ing any evidence whatever of their existence, although I searched 

 long and laboriously. 



It may be conjectured from the continuous signs of water-wear- 

 ing, not occurring at spasmodic intervals but in a gradual scale of 

 ascent or descent, and also from the very distinct nature and extent 

 of the watermarks, that this country must have occupied long 

 ages in its emergence from above the ocean level, otherwise the 

 water would not have had time to leave such decided traces of its 

 action from summit to base. Of the nature of these limestone cliffs, 

 I may say that there are white crystalline marbles not unlike loaf- 

 sugar, there are blue compact limestones, occasionally in the lower 

 ground dark compact stratified and highly indurated shales, but the 

 mass of these cliffs, where exposed, is of a white crystalline 

 character, much interspersed with lodes or fissure veins of felspar 

 and quartz. 



The felspathic crystals often occurring in large cubes, three and 

 four inches square. The limestone when in flat bevelled slabs 

 often gives forth a clear bell-like ring when struck by the hammer 

 and when in large masses of this form it produces a deep rich tone 

 like a powerful gong. 



In the limestone ranges there are many veins of galena more 

 or less productive and generally associated with quartz or felspar. 

 "Whether they are fissure veins belonging merely to the limestone 

 formation, or parts of a distinct system which has its origin in the 

 underlying granite, is a question that may be considered still open, 



