u 
SKETCH OF THE rHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY 
Sedimentary Rocks .— Before proceeding to consider more 
closely the evidences of elevation, and the phenomena to which it 
has given rise, let us enquire ofwhat rocks the Peninsular tract was 
composed before it was broken up in the progress of the great Asia¬ 
tic upheaval. We believe that when the Peninsula has been tho¬ 
roughly explored it will not be difficult to picture it as restored to 
its previous condition, because, although the interior has been ge¬ 
nerally considered as composed of rocks of upheaval, we be lieve, 
from what we have seen of it, that the upheaved rocks will pro¬ 
bably be found intermixed with them in sufficient abundance to en¬ 
able a practised geologist to supply the lacuna. At present our 
information is so exceedingly limited that we can only give a very 
general account of the sedimentary rocks in different latitudes.* 
Along the western coast, from Junk-ceylon nearly to Pinang, lime¬ 
stone appears to be the predominating stratified rock. It is accom- 
other to the N. W. To the north of the former, a secondary aud approxi¬ 
mately parallel range also proceeds eastward, and includes with it the val¬ 
ley of the Sanpao, and, to, the south, another and smaller secondary parallel 
range traverses upper India. To determine the original centres of maxi¬ 
mum intensity and directions of the forces that elevated the great connect¬ 
ed mountain system that forms the skeleton of the Asiatic continent, is a 
problem beyond the present roach of geology. But there can be little doubt 
that an extensive knowledge of the physical and mineralogica! constitution 
of mountain ranges will form the true basis of the highest department of the 
science, now only dawning,—the Mechanism of the Earth.” From a paper 
by the Writer On the Local and Relative Geology of Singapore , including 
notices of Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula fyc. presented to the Asiatic Soc. 
Rena. January 1846 (slightly altered.) 
In citing the above speculation we need hardly remark that we do not 
claim for it any consideration geologically. But we are far from thinking it 
useless thus to turn aside occasionally from the actual observation of local 
facts fthe only basis of solid induction) and cast a glance over the disposi¬ 
tion of the other elevated chains of rock which constitute Eastern Asia, pe¬ 
ninsular and insular. That a real geological analogy will always be found 
at the bottom of the superficial and apparent analogies of continental struc¬ 
ture is not to be imagined, but enough has been observed in the Peninsula, 
Arracan, Southern India, &c., to encourage an expectation that many fun¬ 
damental relations binding the region together will be ascertained as we 
extend our knowledge over the great geological terra incognita around us. 
These apparently systematic, and atleasl symmetrical, distributions of land, 
most of which cun only, as yet, be connected with geography, may be allow¬ 
ed to attract the attention and give a zest to the labours of the geological 
enquirer. Hypotheses which cannot disturb, may be suffered to incite, re- 
* The geology of the Isthmus of Kri has been partially described by Dr- 
Heifer, but as we have, not his report to refer to we exclude the Isthmus from 
the observations which follow, 
