miscellaneous notices «fcc. 
165 
by which the plufonic silicifying and ferruginating exhalations have 
accomplished their far pervading and wonderful transformations. 
Ill the mode in which the pyrites are generally disseminated, this 
coal hears a considerable resemblance to a mass which we found in 
the sandstone and shale strata of Pearl’s Hill, Singapore, in June 
1846, and which, with the assistance promptly and effectively grant- 
to us by the honorable the Resident Councillor, we traced to its 
termination a few months ago. Some of it was proper anthracite, 
and along with it was some imperfect plnmbago and plumbaginous 
anthracite, and a little mineral charcoal. But much was highly sili¬ 
ceous, and although the fibres are in general more separated and 
distinct than in the Ligor specimens there are compact granular por¬ 
tions indistinguishable from some of the latter. Even these how¬ 
ever, are shewn by the microscope to differ from the Ligor rock iti 
not being regularly crystallized, retaining their granular appear¬ 
ance under a power of 22,500. When bruised to a very fine 
powder the carbonaceous and siliceous particles are seen with tin's 
power to be quite separated. 
We at present allude to this, the only trace of ancient carbonace¬ 
ous rock that has yet been found in Singapore, for the purpose of 
introducing a reflection that occured to us at the time. We found 
in it a striking confirmation of the all pervading plutonic action 
which the Malay Peninsula has undergone, or of which, we should 
rather say, it is the product, and of which we meet with evidences 
in every one of the numberless elevations with which the surface of 
the southern portion, more particularly, is rough; but we ap¬ 
prehended that if any extensive deposit of coal should ever be dis¬ 
covered it might be so much affected by the same agency as to be 
deteriorated for economical purposes. The few sedimentary hills of 
the Peninsula which we have examined in a latitude so far north 
as Pinang were identical in their vestiges of plutonic disturbance and 
alteration with these of the southern or Johorc tracts, although less 
strongly marked^ and specimens of rocks recently received from 
the islands north of Pinang hear out the opinion which we ex¬ 
pressed elsewhere some time ago, that the Peninsula is a portion 
tion, such as great heat caused by the proximity of molten granitic fluid 
viould have expelled the volatile ingredients from the whole of each speci¬ 
men. 1 
