OF THE MALAY PENINSULA. 3 



Singapore. Another range of the same composition is the 

 range of foothills in Pahang that lies to the east of the main 

 granite range : while on the western side of the Peninsula the 

 small Semanggol range between Larut and Krian is composed 

 of the same rocks. Other hills in South Perak and Selangor 

 are outcrops of similar rocks and may prove to be of the same 

 age, and many small exposures of cod glomerate, quartzite, and 

 clayslate are known that can be regarded as contemporaneous 

 with more certainty. 



These mountain ranges have preserved for us a mass of 

 rocks that were formed at the mouth of a big river, or perhaps 

 of more than one river, and the fossils found in them, unfor- 

 tunately few in number, prove that they are an extension of 

 the great Gondwana Series of India, marking a portion of the 

 coast of what is known as Gondwana-land, a continent that 

 existed in the Palaeozoic Epoch and gradually broke up during 

 the Mesozoic. The extent of this continent is a difficult 

 question that brings palaeontological evidence into conflict 

 with the theory of the permanence of Ocean basins. The 

 former points to a land connection between India, Australia, 

 and South Africa, that is to say to a large tract of land 

 occupying the present position of part, at any rate, of the 

 Indian Ocean. On the other hand we have the view held by 

 many eminent scientists, that the great ocean basins as we 

 know them now were formed when first land and water were 

 differentiated on the surface of the globe. It is a question 

 that cannot be discussed at length here, and we must be 

 content in saying that Gondwana-land was a reality but that 

 its form and extent are uncertain. 



The Gondwana rocks of the Peninsula were laid down in 

 the sea on the north or north-east coast of Gondwana-land. 

 We now have a starting point from which to extend our 

 knowledge if possible : that at one time of the earth's history, 

 namely during the deposition of part of the Gondwana Series 

 of India, which dates from the early Permian, this portion of 

 the globe was a shallow sea off the coast of Gondwana-land. 

 What was it before then ? 



R. A. Soc, No. 59, I9H- 



