138 
VOYAGE OF THE POTOMAC. 
[February, 
shore. The more elevated spots which these marshes partially or 
wholly encompass, in the course of their extensive range, appear 
like so many peninsulas, promontories, capes, islands, isthmuses, 
and. ridges; presenting in some places gentle declivities, and m 
others high and precipitous cliffs. 
In mineral and metallic productions, the island is very rich ; and 
it also abounds with fossil animal remains. In all ages it has 
been celebrated for its gold, of which it is still productive, and 
might be made abundantly more so, were the inhabitants industri- 
ous, and better versed in the sciences of mineralogy and metal- 
, lurgy. The copper mines are also rich ; and the ore, like that of 
Japan, is impregnated with gold. Iron is found in abundance, 
and the steel produced from it possesses a briUiancy, acuteness, 
; and durity, which have never been equalled in any other part of 
the world. Tin, called by the natives temar, has always been 
one of the export commodities of the island, and has generally 
been procured near Palembang ; though it is also found in other 
places, especially near Pedattee, in the vicinity of the English 
settlement of Bencoolen. 
The soil is also impregnated with nitre, or saltpetre, of which 
the natives extract large quantities, by a process peculiar to them- 
selves. Coal, rock-crystal, and mineral and hot springs, have been 
discovered in many districts ; and the oleum terr(E, or oil of earth, 
is found in several places, being probably the same as the foun- 
tain of naptha, at Pedir, a town on the north end of the island, 
about forty miles east-southeast of Acheen, and which is so 
much celebrated by the Portuguese. Petrifications of shells of 
various kinds, and also of wood, are often found fifty feet above 
the level of the sea, and sometimes as many feet below the same 
level. These objects, deposited in situations so far beyond the 
reach of any assignable agency, may be admitted as corroborative 
testimony in favour of the hypothesis which supposes this globe 
of ours, at some remote period, to have writhed and shaken 
imder some terrific convulsion. 
The island under consideration, at all events, has been, and 
probably still is, subject to those feverish throes of nature which 
have been known to produce results not less singular than the 
phenomena just alluded to. In fact, there are few islands in the 
eastern Archipelago that do not exhibit irresistible evidence of 
