84 
SKETCH or THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY 
of the Peninsula, which is very decidedly distinguished from the north¬ 
ern by a difference in form and direction. It is to this latter half that 
the name of the Malay Peninsula should perhaps be restricted, as it 
indeed seems often to be by writers. The northern half is properly a 
long isthmus, that of Kra, connecting the Peninsular Malaya , (as it 
ig sometimes called,) with the Hindu-Chinese region. 
A kno wledge of the mountain systems of the interior, which we do not 
possess, could alone enable us to describe the figure and direction of 
the Peninsula, so limited, in any other than an empiric manner. The 
eastern and western coasts are neither regular in themselves nor paral¬ 
lel to each other. But on both there are considerable portions hav¬ 
ing uniform directions, and some even parallel, so that, independenly 
of geological facts, we are impressed with a conviction that, des¬ 
pite all the observed irregularities in the external outline, the region 
has been moulded under some simple laws, and that probably one and 
the same law of direction will be discovered in-Ligor and in Johore. 
A line drawn from the middle of the base of the Peninsula, limited as 
above, to the town of Singapore at its southern extremity, lies N. W. 
by N... S. E. by S.; and this, although it divides it into unequal 
parts, may be considered the fairest approximation to the general di¬ 
rection. The northern part of the western coast nearly to Kedah, or 
for 140 miles, is disposed on a straight line having nearly the sam« 
direction. A similar direction is resumed from the Bindings to. Par- 
eelar hill; and if the numerous islets off the northern coast he consi¬ 
dered as a portion of the Peninsula, the latter line might be prolong¬ 
ed parallel to the former up to Junk-ceylon, so as to include almost 
the whole of these islands, and give a uniformity of direction to more 
than two-thirds of the western limit of the Peninsula. The very 
broken and irregular east coast opposite the northern portion of the 
west coast has the same general direction, and it shews itself more de¬ 
cidedly in the coast between the parallel of Patani and that of Tan- 
jong Dungan or P. Varela. The portions of the opposite coasts that 
deviate most from the rudimental direction, approach to meridional 
lines, and consequently to parallelism ; these are the coast of Kedah 
(south of Kwalla Kedah) and that of Pahang. One of the most re- 
