AND GEOLOGY OF THE MALAY PENINSULA, 
115 
sets generally to the northward. This appears to be due in the N. E. 
monsoon to the influx of water from the China sea at the southern ex¬ 
tremity, and the flow of the Bengal sea to the S. W. thus causing a 
draught at the northern extremity. In the S. W. monsoon again, 
while the sea of Bengal on the one side flows to the N. E., a fur¬ 
ther draught is occasioned by the monsoon being changed on the 
west coast of Sumatra into a N, W. one. Thus, while on the Su¬ 
matra side of the Straits, the current runs along the Pedier coast and 
out of the Straits to the westward, it is setting on the opposite side 
to the northward. During the same monsoon the current about the 
Arroas sets often strong to the N. W, with a weak flood at times to 
S. E. From the Arroas to the Carimons regular tides prevail from 
one side of the Straits to the other. The ebb which sets to the N. 
W. is longer and stronger than the flood. The flood sets to the S. 
E. as far as the Carimons. Between this group and Tree Island it 
meets the flood running in from the China sea. After the junction 
the flood sets to the southward towards the Straits of Durian. The 
meeting of the two tides causes great irregularities, so that in the 
Straits of Singapore they sometimes set for 6 hours in one direction 
and then 12 to 18 in the opposite. They arc frequently very rapid, 
and at some places run in eddies.* 
The effects upon the Peninsula of the aqueous agencies of which 
We have given the preceding imperfect account, are great and obvious. 
They have given a distinctive character to the whole coast, for wc 
recognize them equally in the broad plains and mangrove swamps, 
and In tile abraded promontaries and ranges which separate them. 
From the great irregularity in the original configuration of the bor¬ 
ders of the Peninsula, causing numerous broad and deep hollows 
sheltered from the sea, it has resulted that the accessions which the 
country has received, greatly exceed the extent of land that has been 
washed away, if we consider superficial area alone. What may be 
the proportion of the bulk of alluvium deposited around the shores, 
to the bulk of abraded matter which the interior has lost, is a ques¬ 
tion not so easily answered. Some portions of the coast have gained 
The facts in this paragraph arc derived from Hors burgh. 
