vent.
The existence of these copious springs is proved in the facility with
which wells are everywhere sunk; requiring no choice of ground but as it
may respect the convenience of the proprietor; all situations, whether
high or low, being prodigal of this valuable element. Where the
approaches of the sea have rendered the cliffs abrupt, innumerable rills,
or rather a continued moisture, is seen to ooze through and trickle down
the steep. Where on the contrary the sea has retired and thrown up banks
of sand in its retreat I have remarked the streams of water, at a certain
level and commonly between the boundaries of the tide, effecting their
passage through the loose and feeble barrier opposed to them. In short,
every part of the low country is pregnant with springs that labour for
the birth; and these continual struggles, this violent activity of
subterraneous waters, must gradually undermine the plains above. The
earth is imperceptibly excavated, the surface settles in, and hence the
inequalities we speak of. The operation is slow but unremitting, and, I
conceive, fully capable of the effect.

MINERAL PRODUCTIONS.

The earth of Sumatra is rich in minerals and other fossil productions.

GOLD.

No country has been more famous in all ages for gold, and, though the
sources from whence it is drawn may be supposed in some measure exhausted
by the avarice and industry of ages, yet at this day the quantity
procured is very considerable, and doubtless might be much increased were
the simple labour of the gatherer assisted by a knowledge of the arts of
mineralogy.

COPPER, IRON, TIN, SULPHUR.

There are also mines of copper, iron, and tin. Sulphur is gathered in
large quantities about the numerous volcanoes.

SALTPETRE.

Saltpetre the natives procure by a process of their own from the earth
which is found impregnated with it; chiefly in extensive caves that have
been, from the beginning of time, the haunt of a certain species of
birds, of whose dung the soil is formed.

COAL.

Coal, mostly washed down by the floods, is collected in several parts,
particularly at Kataun, Ayer-rammi, and Bencoolen. It is light and not
esteemed very good; but I am informed that this is the case with all coal
found near the surface of the earth, and, as the veins are observed to
run in an inclined direction until the pits have some depth, the fossil
must be of an indifferent quality. The little island of Pisang, near the
foot of Mount