of stanniferous quartz and overlaid by sandstone, unfossilised 
clay slates, laterite, or ironstone, and in a few places, principally 
to the North, by limestone ; for although no trace has been 
found of recent volcanic action, there are several isolated and 
unstratified limestone masses, from 500 to 2,000 feet high, 
of a highly crystallised character, with no fossils of any kind. 
The most remarkable feature, in a geological sense, is the 
prevalence of tin, as well as some gold and galena. 
The tin is found throughout thti Peninsula, from Tav^oi 
14*^ N. to the Carimons (Kerimun) and to Lingga (on the Equa- 
tor) ; and again > after a break of about 2^, as far South as Baoka 
and Billilon (3*^ S.), which, as pointed out abovCj form, m 
every respect, but an extension of the Peninsula. Tin has 
not been found elsewhere in the x-lrchipelago. The bed of 
the ore is> where it has yet been observed in siiii^ the quartz: 
which is found penetrating the granite at every elevation ; but 
all tin-mining has hitherto been confined to the deposits near 
the foot of the hills, in the alluvial ground, formed by the 
decomposition of the encasing rocks. 
The primeval forests which, in general, cover the whole 
country^, are occasionally interspersed with grassy plains in the 
North, The coast on both sides, and particularly the West, 
is almost invariably marshy and alluvial^ scarcely raised above 
the sea, and, being under shelter of Sumatra, even and unbro- 
ken towards the Straits of Malacca. The seaboard is generally 
overgrown with mangroves for some four or five miles inland. 
In some parts the breadth of the plain reaches 30 miles^ but it is 
usually much less. "On the East coast, where there is an open 
sea, the hills at several points are close to "the shore; but the 
general character of the country is the same on both sides. 
