0 
souls, i e., about 15 inhabitants to the square mile. Of this 
whole number, 470,000, or nearly two-fifths, are found in the 
Colony of the Straits Settlements — a territory of 1,500 square 
miles, which, therefore, contains over 300 inhabitants to the 
square mile. 
Physical, — The Malay Peninsula proper consists mainly of 
connected ranges of mountainous land, lying in the line of 
the Peninsula, which constitute a distinct water-parting between 
the streams flowing East and West to the surrounding seas. 
The western range continues unbroken from the interior of 
Kedah (6* N.) to the interior of Malacca {2^ N.), and it re-ap- 
pears at inten^als in the South (Johor) and even in the island 
peaks beyond. On each side of the elevated region is a 
narrow littoral of recent formation, by which the Gulf of Siani 
and the Straits of Malacca are bordered, and which alone, it 
may be said, is inhabited and cultivated at present. The height 
of the mountain chain increases towards the wider parts of the 
Peninsula, at the baclf of the Bindings ; many peaks in Pfirak 
being now known to exceed 8,000 feet— it is even said 10,000 
feet ; such as the Titi Wangsa hills between Kedah and P^rak, 
and Mount Robinson and other summits in the South of P^rak, 
which have only been ascended in the last few years. An unex- 
plored ridge—Mount Tahan— on the East side of the River 
Pahang, near the West frontier of Tringg^nu and Kelantan, 
is thought by the traveller Mikll ho-M.\clav, who alone has 
traversed the interior ( 1875). to be the highest land of the whole 
Peninsula. 
The entire Peninsula, to w^ithin some 10 to 25 miles of the 
coast, is broken and hilly, covered both on hill and plain with 
dense forests. It is of granitic formation, traversed by veins 
