399 
GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY 
since the last great revolution of the globe, by which the moun¬ 
tain ranges were created, but that the land is not in a perfect 
state of quiescence, we have evidence in the thermal springs 
which are found rising through the secondary formations 
which skirt the boundary range of mountains, from Hie head 
waters of the Thoungyui river to the feeders of the little Te- 
nasserim south of Mergui, and there can be little doubt but 
that they will be found to exist throughout the “terra incog¬ 
nita’* lying between our border on the Pok-chun and the 
Malacca territory, where the known localities form a connec¬ 
ted series of springs passing nearly N. aud S. through the 
Peninsula. 
I am not aware whether the properties of these thermal 
springs have ever been ascertained, or that any analysis of their 
waters has been made; it cannot be expected however, that the 
curious traveller will burden himself with fluid specimens 
requiring extra care for their preservation in a country acces¬ 
sible only by the rudest jungle paths, or that he will oil 
discovery institute any further investigation of the properties 
of such springs beyond ascertaining the fact of their high 
temperature. 
A spring of the ordinary temperature discovered by myself 
while passing through the jungles in this vicinity deserves 
notice. Amidst a mass of desrupted lateritic fragments, the 
water bubbles up, overflowing the surface, more copiously 
during the rains than at any other period, encrusting every 
substance in the vicinity with a coating of carbonate oflime, 
and forming within the cavity a series of miniature columns of 
calcareous tufa, which are extended annually from any of the 
jutting projections of the laterite, forming small caverns and 
giving the whole an appearance precisely similar to that of the 
cavernous limestone; at once both interesting and instructive 
in the examination. Seeds, twigs and leaves of the jungle 
plants so encrusted, preserve their original shape, the ligneous 
parts being in a state of partial decay as from moisture, the 
seeds however are completely altered, the whole substance be¬ 
ing changed into a carbonate of lime, preserving its original 
vegetable appearance in the cross section. The water of this 
spring yields to tests both carbonate of magnesia and oxide 
ot Iron, the latter in very small proportion;—these, combined 
with the carbonate of lime and carbonic acid gas appear to 
form its constituents, shewing its properties to be almost pure¬ 
ly alkaline. 
A gradual wasting of the alluvial lands exposed to the direct 
action of the sea, as on the Island of Beloo Gyoon and in the 
