TYi E 
JOURNAL 
OI' 
THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO 
A N I> 
E A S T K R N A S I A . 
REPORT ON THE ISLAND OF BANKA, 
By Thomas Horsfielo, M.I). 
In a Discourse delivered by Sir T. S. Raffles to the Batavian So¬ 
ciety of Arts and Sciences in September IS 15 (Memoirs p. 150. 
Transactions of the Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences, vol. viii. 
p. I.) a reference is made to a Report ou Banka by Dr. Horsfleld. 
This report appeared to be of great inter est, because it was proba¬ 
ble from the brief extracts which Sir S. Raffles gives from it, that 
a complete geological analogy existed between Banka and the south¬ 
ern parts of the Malay Peninsula.* t Sir S. Raffles expressed a hope 
that this valuable Report 4(1 would shortly appear in print under the 
liberal patronage and support of the East India Company.” After 
consulting all the latest works touching on Banka and finding in 
none of them any notice of the report, we concluded it had never 
been published in England, and requested Dr. Hoevell, the present 
President of the Batavian Society, to ascertain whether it had ever 
appeared in Dutch, like some other essays of Dr. Horsfield, or was to 
be found in the archives of the Society or of the Government at 
Batavia. No trace however could be found of it in Batavia. We next 
applied to Colonel Butterworth, the Governor of the Straits Settle¬ 
ments, who at once used his good offices at the India House, and 
the result was that in a few months we were placed in possession of 
* On the Local and Relative Geology of Singapore. Journal As. Sot. 
Bengal. 1847, p. 546, 
VOL. ii. no. vi, June, 1848. t 2 
