AKI> GEOLOGY OF THE MALAY PENINSULA, $4 
to find this distance very considerable. The Peninsular zone can be 
traced northward to Thibet in a direction apparently agreeing nearly 
with the western boundaries of Siam, Anam and the Chinese Pro* 
vince of Yunam Above this it is not distinctly traceable, as we lose 
it in that remarkable and little explored tract in which all the Hin¬ 
du* Chinese zones, many of those of China, and Thibet, and the mas* 
give Himalaya themselves, converge, and where, consequently, the ra¬ 
vines of rivers whose estuaries are scattered over a circuit extending 
from Martaban on the mouth of the Thaleain to Shanghai at that of 
the Yang-tse-kiang, are compressed into a space not more than 140 
miles in breadth. 
When we see the approach to parallelism which the mountain 
zones of the Hindu-Chinese region maintain during a considerable 
part of their course, and their convergence to one point of the great 
table land of Asia, we cannot refuse our assent to the geological con¬ 
clusion that the whole is but an integral portion of the Asiatic mass 
of elevation, and that these offshoots, thus parallel and adjoining-, 
originated probably in some common cause. 
The Peninsular band however can be traced southward as well as 
northward, beyond the proper geographical limits of the Peninsula. 
The rocks of the Johore Archipelago and Banka enable us distinctly 
to follow it through this insular chain. 
But there is another and a stronger link between the Peninsula 
and the volcanic region of the Archipelago. This is the mountain 
zone of Sumatra, which, while it is parallel to the Peninsula, and re¬ 
peats its plutonic rocks, is, at the same time, almost united to Java, 
and, throughout its whole length, contains tracts of volcanic rocks, 
and volcanoes, several of which are still active. 
To complete the chain of evidence, it is only necessary to advert to 
the fact that the volcanic belt of Sumatra extends at least to Chitta¬ 
gong, thus following the plutonic bands of the Hindu-Chinese region 
through a large part of their course to the north. 
Enough probably has been said to indicate how intimately the Pe¬ 
ninsula is connected with the great Asiatic mass on the one hand, and 
the Archipelago on the other. It would too much extend this paper 
