AND THE NEIGHBOURING ISLANDS. 



151 



The soil of the hills is a reddish light sandy clay from the decomposi- 

 tion of the granite composing them, the process of which may be seen 

 going on, wherever roads have been cut below the surface. It is seldom 

 more than eight feet in depth, most frequently less, and the vegetable 

 mould above it is from six to twelve inches. There is little gravel and no 

 fragments, except occasionally of quartz, probably from exposed veins. 



The whole of the group of hills, and indeed every rocky or elevated 

 part of Pinang, is composed of granite. No other mountain rock occurs 

 in immediate connection with it. It varies in grain, in colour, and occa- 

 sionally in the proportion of its ingredients. It is every where traversed 

 by veins of quartz and quartz-rock, which are often of large size. Com- 

 mencing at Fort Cornwallis, and going round the island, first to the 

 north, we find the following varieties: at Fulo TicooseVo'mi, where the 

 beach is rocky, and composed of immense fragments, it is of a fine grain 

 and grey colour, as in specimen No. 54. At Bala Feringi, where a 

 small stream forms a magnificent waterfall, and a great mass of rock 

 is exposed, the granite of rather coarse grain (No. 1*) is traversed by 

 a vein of quartz rock (No. 2) resembling primitive sandstone, very 

 hard, and from two feet to two and a half feet in breadth. In it, 

 the stream has formed numerous tub-like cells, some of them two or 

 three feet deep. I have seen some fine specimens of colorless rock 

 crystal, containing crystals of schorl, which were collected here, 

 but I had not the good fortune to meet with any on my visits. At 

 the east point of Tulolt Bohanq-, the granite is grey and coarse grain- 

 ed (No. 3). At the west point of it, it is of u lino grain and of a 

 slightly greenish colour. On the beach, to the Avest of Kucha 

 Muka, a small village on the north side of the island, among the rolkd 



* The figures iliiuui^houi ixin' to tlic iiuuibci j ol' the specimens herewith sent. 



