282 
FIVE DAYS IN NAMING. 
active forces had died out in i*emote ages.* In Malacca 
and Naning I had every where seen the same fact repeated, 
although often in different language, and nothing could be 
more certain than that the country in which I now was, 
formed with the southern extremity of the Peninsula one 
geological region. The earlier events of their history had not 
been the same, but at the latent epoch of action, both had been 
embraced within the range of one great revolution, branding 
them with the same character, and their history then became 
one. As I looked down into the well at Ganong and saw 
the water bubbling up, and felt its heat in my hand, what 
had been in Singapore a slowly elaborated theory, seemed 
to announce itself directly to the senses. Here, at this 
moment, and in open day, is the very heat, so to speak, that 
has broken up and metamorphosed this region, and formed 
the mountains, hills and vallies of the Peninsula, brought by 
this water to the surface from its subterranean source, 
probably even now uncrystallised. Coming after so many 
explorations leading to new and sometimes perplexing facts 
giving rise to temporary doubts, the unexpectedly high tem¬ 
perature of this spring seemed to place me in the presence 
of a living witness of the events which I had been seeking to 
regain from oblivion. 
A s all the hot springs in the Peninsula, and some at least 
of those in Sumatra, occur in swampy flats, a comparison of 
the physical features of the elevated ground surrounding or ad¬ 
joining them may explain the mode of their production, and I 
shall therefore mention those of Ganong. The flat or small 
plain has a general direction of about S. by S. W.—N. by 
N. E, It is formed by the meeting of three smaller vallies, 
two of which enter its N. E. extremity. These are caused 
by the extremity of a hill, called Bukit Sapom, interposing 
itself between the bases of the two broad flat hills or raised 
tracts which form the eastern and western boundaries of 
the plain, and are here deflected in an easterly direction. 
The other valley lies between B. Ganong (which forms the 
southern boundary of the plain) and the base of the hill on 
the west, which, on approaching B, Ganong, turns to the 
W. N. W, | N. The outlet or continuation of the flat 
runs S. S. E. 4 S. between B. Ganong and the base of the 
eastern hill j both of these, at this south-eastern end of the 
flat, bending so as to give it that direction. It will thus 
* I had at first endeavoured to connect the r.uoeerous evidences of ancient 
igneous agency on the Peninsula with the active plutonic forces of Sumatra, 
Journal of the Asiatic Society {Calcutta) 1847 p p 541—557, 
