OF THE MALAY PENINSULA. 9 



will perhaps ask himself why that low-lying country, drained 

 by.no considerable river, exists. The corals and shells at the 

 base of the limestone hill in Kedah (Elephant's Hill) certainly 

 mark an old sea-beach : the hill was once an island and the 

 Alor Star padi-fields were covered by a shallow sea, and if it 

 is once admitted that the country round Alor Star was recently 

 sea, then a comparison of levels make it necessary to admit 

 that a large portion of the Peninsula was recently sea also, 

 and that the hills which rise from the mangrove swamps, such 

 as the Dindings hills, Kuala Selangor hill, and Parcel lar, were 

 islands. With regard to the low-lying country west of the 

 barrier range in Kedah, I have not seen any conclusive 

 evidence myself that it also was covered by the sea, but Mr. 

 H. N. Ridley tells me that the flora of the Peninsula north of 

 Penang shows that the " flat area between Perlis and Gunong 

 Jerai was for a long time under sea," so that it is not an un- 

 reasonable conclusion to come to that in recent geological 

 times the Peninsula itself was an island. 



We have now done what we can to trace the main points 

 of the history of this part of the globe from the deposition of 

 the calcareous Carboniferous rocks to the present time, and 

 I must now describe the little that is known of its pre-Car- 

 boniferous history. This has been learned from part of the 

 series of volcanic rocks found with the calcareous rocks on the 

 one hand, and from part of the Gondwana rocks on the other. 



In Pahang these volcanic rocks form an extensive series 

 interbedded with the Carboniferous calcareous rocks, which 

 proves, as before stated, that the sea-floor in those early times 

 was periodically the scene of violent eruptions. The series 

 consists of lavas and ashes, and there is evidence that the 

 eruptions had not completely ceased when the deposition of 

 the Gondwana began. ; These volcanic rocks, I have found, 

 are not confined to Pahang and it will be of interest perhaps 

 to many to kuow that the small island, Pulau Nanas, between 

 Pulau Ubin and the Johore coast, where a large quantity of 

 stone is worked for use in Singapore, is composed off these 

 rocks. Pulau Nanas consists of lava and ashes that have been 



R. A. Soc, No. 59. 19". 



