1838.] 



Sketch of the Malayan Peninsula. 



59 



a considerable proportion of silicious matter deposited in it, with veins 

 ofquartzafew inches in breadth occasionally intersecting it. The ge- 

 neral rock was found stratified, from one to three or four feet in thick- 

 ness, lying at an angle of about 45" dipping to the eastward ; all the sur- 

 face, wherever exposed, is rough and uneven. Numerous caverns were 

 found, whose roofs,not being so exposed, were more smooth, which caves 

 have been evidently formed by the action of the waves impinging against 

 the rocks, which action is still going on in certain situations. Some 

 caverns w^ere situated higher up, and not now exposed to the same agen- 

 cy. On the north side of Pulo Sedah are found large masses of the 

 same rock, from 20 to 30 feet in length and breadth, and 10 feet in thick- 

 nesrs, lying in juxtaposition, and no doubt originally deposited en masse, 

 but, having been raised unequally, have been broken into their present 

 form and appearance. These masses w^ere found rich in fossil remains ; 

 quantities of testaceous deposits were seen in all directions partly above 

 the general surface, undergoing disintegration along with the matrix in 

 which they were imbedded. Of the fossil nautilus many were seen, also 

 some which Dr. Bland thought ammonites ; silicious cylinders, also a 

 fossil spine, which, from the round cup-like appearance of the vertebrcPf 

 was probably that of a fish. 



The next point to which I would call attention is the careful observa- 

 tion of the laterite at its line of junction with the rocks on which it is 

 found resting, viz. granite at Malacca, and sandstone at Singapore, 

 Ai^ah and Pulo Takung ; whether the strata of the latter rocks are 

 horizontal or inclined ; and whether there be any appearance 

 of stratification, or fossil remains in the laterite, or if it ever 

 occurs in the form of dykes in its associated rocks. The origin 

 of this rock, igneous or detrital, whether it burst up from beneath 

 the crust of our planet like the Salses or mud eruptions of South 

 America, overflowing the surface like basalt, overlying trap or lava j 

 or whether it was formed from the disintegration of the sub« 

 jacent rocks, or the detritus of the elevated plutonic rocks over the 

 base of which it is generally found, is a question still undecided in 

 Indian geology. Mud volcanos are known to exist in Pegu. In the^ 

 reports of the British x\ssociation for 1831-2, is the following passage 

 in the report on geology, by the Rev. W. D. Conybeare. " We learn 

 that primitive formations, in W'hich granitic rocks bear the principal 

 proportion, occupy not only the great Himalayan northern chain, but 

 also three-fourths of the entire peninsula, from the vale of the Ganges 

 below Patna to Cape Comorin; although these rocks are frequently 



