53 Sketch of the Malayan Peiiinsula, [Jaic. 



The i-ed cementing substance is probably the red earth result- 

 ing from the decomposition of the limestone. It is noticed by M de 

 Cristol, in his Observations Generales sur les Breches Osseuses, that, in 

 all cases where the red cement occurs, the cleft is in limestone, or where 

 matter may be washed from limestone. One of these pieces bore the dis- 

 tinct impression of a fossil shell, supposed by Dr. Ward to be a species 

 of Cirrus.* At the foot of a detached mass of the limestone he found, at 

 an elevation of eight or ten feet above the level of the Surrounding 

 plain, a mass of shells, chiefly cockles, oysters, and a larger kind of mus- 

 cle, which he describes to be connected together by calcarious matter, 

 the interstices being filled with soft earth containing numerous smaller 

 shells. The mass w^as of irregular shape, between three and four feet 

 Square, and about the same in thickness, perfectly superficial, and not 

 connected in any way with the rocks near it. No appearance of strata ef 

 shells w as discovered in the neighbourhood. 



The rock is an insulated mass of limestone, close grained and of a 

 dark smoke grey colour, perforated by stalactitic caverns of considera- 

 ble size. It is situated about six miles from the coast, in an immense 

 plain, bounded to the east by a small ridge of hills about sixteen miles 

 inland, supposed to be composed of a fine grained sandstone. The soil 

 of the plain is a whitish clay mixed with sand. From its general ap- 

 pearance, the low nature of the surrounding country, the existence of 

 the shells in the breccia, and local tradition. Dr. Ward thinks that it was 

 at one time surrounded by the sea, and at no very distant period. The 

 nature of the fossil remains must determine this point. It does not ap- 

 pear that the stalagmitic flooring of the caves was broken up by Dr. 

 Ward : this should be done in order to get at the silt, sand, gravel, or 

 mud, in which organic remains have been usually found imbedded in the 

 ossiferous caverns of Europe. The bottom of the numerous caverns, in 

 the islets frequented by the adventurous birds' nest gatherers, might with 

 advantage be subjected to a similar process. Pulo Sedak dedarat, a rock 

 thus described by Dr. Bland, and indeed the whole Zar/cai;/ cluster, merit 

 a more careful examination. This island {Pulo Sedah) lies otF the 

 Quedah coast, in sight of the mainland, and forms one of the Lancavi 

 group. It is about one and a half miles in circumference and rises to 

 the height of 4 or 500 feet, crowned by a castellated looking rock with 

 perpendicular strata : the whole appears composed of limestone, having 



* The Secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Mr. Prinsep, seems to think this sup- 

 posed impression of a Cirrus might be that of one of Dr. Bland's species of Pterocyclos 

 found on Pw^ Susson, an island opposite Quedah. Asiatic Journal Dec. 1836, p. 784. 



