AND GEOLOGY OF FHE MALAY PENINSULA. 121 
possible to foreshew the period within which this plain will embrace 
the Island. The Kedah, Mirbau and Muda rivers, with the inter¬ 
mediate smaller streams, have formed a great bank of mud stretch¬ 
ing out to sea, over a broad band of which, between the northern 
shore of the Island and the mouth of the Mirbau, there is nowhere 
more than 4J- fathoms of water. Within, or to the south of, this 
band, the opposite coasts approach, and the current, thus confined, 
as it advances acquires strength, and scoops out a deeper channel, so 
that, at the narrowest part of the strait where it has been restrained 
bv the Fort and embankments from carrying away the land on which 
the Town stands, there is no less than 14 fathoms of water. So 
long as this rapid and powerful current continues, the effort of the sea 
will he to widen the interval that separates the island from the main¬ 
land at this their nearest approach. But much of the sediment that 
would otherwise have been carried through the broad channel which 
would naturally have existed, is thus thrown on the bank beginning at 
the old Police office of the Province, and the remainder tends to en¬ 
large the banks in the south channel. In process of time the gradual 
shoaling of the sea over the great bank to the north will diminish the 
force of the current, and, as the bank extends continuously behind and 
stretches well out, there is little probability of a channel being worn 
through it by the current tending to the strait, especially as the acces¬ 
sion of mud in the south channel will exercise a similar resistant power 
in that direction. Along the coast to the south of Pinang the mud 
■is increasing more regularly and surely than to the north, for it lies 
further into the Straits of Malacca, and is protected by the Island 
from the heavy waves of the Bay, The great mud fiat that stretches 
confcinously from the Bindings, having a length of 50 miles and a 
breadth of from 6 to 8, already advances its north western extremity 
to a point further out than the seaward side of the channel between 
Pinang and the mainland, and nearly in a line witli the centre of the 
southern coast of the Island.* Over this fiat the mangroves are slowly 
9 Tlie existing charts give a very imperfect representation of the outer 
edge of this bank which may be ow ing to a considerable period having elap¬ 
sed since the soundings from which they w r ere constructed were made. The 
proper N. W. extremity lies much more to the west than the point to which 
