On the Geology of Labuan†

The Island of Labuan is composed of alternating beds of clays and sandstones, the former sometimes containing ironstone. Coal-seams are found in several places, and appear to be associated in groups. The principal beds of coal occur in the northern part of the island, between two ridges of sandstone hills, one of which, the most southerly and in some places upwards of 300 feet high, runs from the South Bluff of Tanjong Kubong (near the northern extremity of the island) in a S.S.W. direction to Luke Point on the western coast; and the second ridge, less regular, though at places higher than the first, commences a few hundred yards to the north of this Bluff, and runs parallel to the first ridge towards Heath Point. The beds dip conformably to the N.N.W., at angles varying from about 25° (at Tanjong Kubong) to about 70° (at Sawangan Pagar). The following is the succession of beds (in ascending series) seen in the cliffs at Tanjoug Kubong, going northward from South Kuboug Bluff:— The coal appears to be composed, for the most part, of prostrate trunks of large trees, slightly compressed, and crossing each other in all directions. The fossil wood is dicotyledonous, and exactly resembles in microscopical structure that of the Dipteraceous trees now forming the mass of timber growing on the island. What makes the resemblance of this coal to the wood of the Dipteraceae still more striking, says the author, is the existence of the thickly scattered masses of semitransparent