TITE 
JOURNAL 
OF 
THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO 
A\'I> 
EASTERN ASIA. 
SKETCH OF THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLO¬ 
GY OF THE MALAY PENINSULA.* 
The Malay Peninsula, if we give the term its widest application, 
is disengaged by the Gulf of Siam from the broad mass of the general 
Hindu-Chinese Peninsula in about 13° 30’ N. L. Its length is so 
great compared with its breadth, being nearly as 10 to 1, that it 
may be described as an irregular zone stretching from that latitude 
(Lon. 98°. . 100 n 20’ E.) through above 890 miles (Geo.) to within 
1° 14’of the Equator (Lon. 103° 27’. . 104 17’ E.) and dividing the 
sea of Bengal from that of China in their southern portions. Its 
base is a line extending from a point a little southwest of Bank ok to 
the mouth of the Tavoy river, at right angles to the direction of its 
northern half. Thence it stretches almost due southward for about 
5£ degrees between the Bay of Bengal and the Gulf of Siam, at first 
gradually contracting its breadth from above 2°, that of the base, to 
in 12 s * N. L., where the eastern coast suddenly retires at Kwi 
Point for about 40 miles, thereby reducing the breadth to about 1°, 
which it retains with little variation to the latitute of 9°. Here it 
again abruptly expands on the east into the Gulf of Siam, this expan¬ 
sion coinciding with the commencement of the second or southern half 
* We have often had occasion to lament the meagreness of our know¬ 
ledge of the Peninsula, but never more than in attempting to give a sketch 
of its physical geography and geology. The reader will scarcely consider 
the information conveyed as being sufficient to warrant such a title, and in¬ 
deed there would be no excuse for venturing on the subject, if we did not 
think that such a general view of the little that we know, would better shew 
the extent of what we do not know, and tend to incite observation, than the 
publication of a long and dry catalogue of deficiencies and disiderata. 
vol. n. no. ii. Feb. 1848, u 
