1838.] 



Skelch of the Malayan Peninsula. 



55 



This limestone has not hitherto been found in the southern part of the 

 peninsula. I have seen traces of clay slate in the tin mines of Naningy 

 and it is seen again in situ at the extremity of the peninsula. The 

 matrix of the tin ore will be probably found at no great distance from 

 the line of superposition, that is where the clay slate rests upon the 

 granite. The islands in the neighbourhood of Malacca, and many of 

 those off the eastern limit of the Salangore coast, consist of granite 

 and sienitic granite, in some situations overlaid by laterite. 



The following notes on the geology of the southern extremity of the 

 peninsula and islets around Singapore, are deduced partly from a 

 paper in the Singapore Chronicle, and partly from a paper* by Dr. 

 Bland. The hill of c/'o/io?"e on the main is four or five hundred feet 

 high — and consists of modifications of granite and hornstone, with 

 beds of jasper. From this to Point Ramunia (twenty miles) is a dreary 

 forest. Along the shore of a tongue of land, called Delhi Point, for the 

 space of two or three miles, are strev;ed large masses of hard and vesi- 

 cular scoricB many feet thick, imbedding masses of silicious matter, in 

 juxtaposition with indurated clay-slate in vertical strata. Dr. Bland 

 jfound here a remarkable nucleus, which presented the appearance as if 

 lava in a liquid form had been forced up from below with a gyrating 

 motion; circular layers having different shades of colour, becoming 

 wider, and more extended, and edging away into straight lines parallel 

 to the other strata. At the N. E. point of a reef stood a fossil tree 

 fifteen feet high, on a mass of a rock of argillaceous schist. Masses 

 of coral, madrepore, bearing indications of igneous action, were seen 

 scattered around and imbedded in the scorias. Obin isle, about six 

 miles long, is of a small grained granite. At Arah on the main the 

 granite formation ceases, and sand-stone and clay-iron-ore (laterite ?) 

 occur. At Arah are large masses of decomposed felspar suited for 

 the manufacture of the best porcelain. From the point of Arah to the 

 point of Pandas on the main, about six miles, is a trace of sandstone, 

 but at the latter place a small grained blue granite appears, or sienite. 

 The corresponding coast of Singapore is also sandstone and clay iron 

 ore (laterite) until we come to Palo Pergam, where blue granite again 

 occurs. Beyond Pulo Pergam again the formation of Singapore is 

 red clay slate. Palo Marambang is a small island chiefly composed 

 of granite with overlying sandstone and clay iron stone. The forma- 

 tion of the Carimons exteriorly is chert or hornstone. Interiorly, neai* 



* Journal Asiatic Society, Bengal, vol. 5, p. 575. 



