64 NOTES ON THE SIAMESE PROVINCES OF KOOWI, &C. 



these two lie ill-marked crossings at Krat, Paron and Bangta- 

 phanoi, the last being used by the Siamese living in the 

 Lenya valley; but the truth of the matter is that the numerous 

 bands of dacoits that infest this region cross anywhere 

 {vide map). To the seaward of the main ridge, and for the 

 greater part running parallel to it, are numerous small ranges, 

 while scattered hills rise w-ith their burden of forest jungle 

 over the plain and thickly skirt the coast, often standing into 

 the sea as promontories offering their bluff side to the waves ; 

 and one can see that the same features characterise the sea- 

 bottom — the hills rising from the water as numerous jungle- 

 covered islands. 



Prominent Geological Features. 



The basis of the backbone ridge is a rough-grained granite, 

 rapidly decomposing when exposed to the atmosphere, and 

 the streams flowing from it ( as indeed is the case almost every- 

 where in the Peninsula) often carry tin and more frequently 

 and more abundantly titanic oxide of iron. Lying on the 

 granite and rising as the basis of the small ranges of hills is a 

 semi-metamorphosed clay-slate much broken up, non-fos- 

 siliferous and probably of the Cambrian period, which forms 

 the "country rock/" To the seaward of this slate and lying 

 on it, runs a great bed of conglomerate rock, composed of flat, 

 water-worn slate pebbles and roughly rounded pieces of quartz 

 welded together by a red clay containing much iron. Its 

 stratification is much disturbed, and it sometimes rises into 

 low 7 hills. Where the slate and this conglomerate meet, one 

 frequently finds great outcrops of a porphyritic rock evidently 

 that of the Mergui series, and here also one finds large out- 

 crops of gold-bearing quartz as in the concession of the Gold- 

 fields of Siam Company. Again it can be seen further South 

 in Champoon where another mine has been opened out. 

 ( Vide Map. ) In the beds of the streams running through 

 these quartz-bearing parts, one finds gold, and sometimes for 

 a mile or more inland from either bank alluvial gold occurs 

 along its sides for long stretches, but from its comparatively 

 even distribution and level deposition one has to look for 



