to the nature of the earth that prevails in its composition.  The red napal has by much the smallest proportion of sand, and seems to possess all the qualities of the steatite or soap-earth found in Cornwall and other countries.  The specimens of stone which I brought from the hills in the neighbourhood of Bencoolen were pronounced by some mineralogists, to whom I showed them at the time, to be granite; but upon more particular examination they appear to be a species of trap, consisting principally of feldspar and hornblende, of a greyish colour and nearly similar to the mountain stone of North Wales.

Petrifaction.

Where the encroachments of the sea have undermined the land the cliffs are left abrupt and naked, in some places to a very considerable height.  In these many curious fossils are discovered, such as petrified wood, and seashells of various sorts.  Hypotheses on this subject have been so ably supported and so powerfully attacked that I shall not presume to intrude myself in the lists.  I shall only observe that, being so near the sea, many would hesitate to allow such discoveries to be of any weight in proving a violent alteration to have taken place in the surface of the terraqueous globe; whilst, on the other hand, it is unaccountable how, in the common course of natural events, such extraneous matter should come to be lodged in strata at the height perhaps of fifty feet above the level of the water, and as many below the surface of the land.

Coloured earths.

Here are likewise found various species of earths which might be applied to valuable purposes, as painters’ colours, and otherwise.  The most common are the yellow and red, probably ochres, and the white, which answers the description of the milenum of the ancients.

Volcanoes.

There are a number of volcano mountains in this, as in almost all the other islands of the eastern Archipelago.  They are called in the Malay language gunong-api, or more correctly, gunong ber-api.  Lava has been seen to flow from a considerable one near Priamang; but I have never heard of its causing any other damage than the burning of woods.  This however may be owing to the thinness of population, which does not render it necessary for the inhabitants to settle in a situation that exposes them to danger of this kind.  The only volcano I had an opportunity of observing opened in the side of a mountain, about twenty miles inland of Bencoolen, one-fourth way from its top, as nearly as I can judge.  It scarcely ever failed to emit smoke; but the column was only visible for two or three hours in the morning, seldom rising and preserving its form, above the upper edge of the hill, which is not of a conical shape but extending with a gradual slope.

Earthquakes.