The imperfection of our knowledge, independent of the peculiar situation of P. Panjang, in an extensive gulf, little subject to the influence of storms, had awakened expectation, which the magnitude of the island, the tabular form of its central range of hills, and the appearance of bold, precipitous rocks, were calculated to augment on a more close inspection.
But nature does not always appear under new forms when we most expect them. At four p. m. we cast anchor on the north side of the island, about its middle, and immediately landed. An aspect more steril than ordinary seemed to forbid our approach. The shores were rocky and precipitous, and though there was but little swell in the sea, we found some difficulty in reaching the shore. From the centre of the island to the sea-shore, the land was abrupt and steep, there being not the smallest extent of level ground. It is everywhere covered with vegetation, of which a great part of that nearest the beach and exposed to the direct influence of the monsoon, is stunted, herbaceous, and disposed in what may be called laid plains or ledges, as if the herbage had received the impression of pernicious blasts.
The coast of this island is everywhere surrounded by large fragmented masses of sandstone, in which there is, on the whole, but little variety of appearance. In situ, it is disposed in large, nearly horizontal, tabular masses, at a distance wearing somewhat of a slaty appearance. The sand-stone is for the most part red, at other times white or gray. It is coarse-grained and gritty, presenting no vestige of organic remains; here and there it is coloured with iron. The cement in most parts seems to be calcareous. Here and there, large masses of conglomerate are found; the masses that I have seen were all detached, but in some parts the surface of the sand-stone shewed where they had adhered; the structure of this was complex; iron seemed to form the cement; rounded pebbles of quartz, sand-stone, iron ore and jasper, with small bits of clay-slate, form the aggregate. Scattered over the beach, there were found masses of coarse jasper.
Such were the principal, and almost the only mineral masses exposed to our view, and of which, we have every reason to believe, the whole of the island is composed.