affected,
and those which stand on distinct hills suffer most from the shocks
because the further removed from the centre of motion the greater the
agitation; and the loose contexture of the one foundation, making less
resistance than the solidity of the other, subjects the building to less
violence. Ships at anchor in the road, though several miles distant from
the shore, are strongly sensible of the concussion.

NEW LAND FORMED.

Besides the new land formed by the convulsions above described, the sea
by a gradual recess in some parts produces the same effect. Many
instances of this kind, of no considerable extent however have been
observed within the memory of persons now living. But it would seem to me
that that large tract of land called Pulo Point, forming the bay of the
name, near to Silebar, with much of the adjacent country has thus been
left by the withdrawing or thrown up by the motion of the sea. Perhaps
the point may have been at first an island (from whence its appellation
of Pulo) and the parts more inland gradually united to it.* Various
circumstances tend to corroborate such an opinion, and to evince the
probability that this was not an original portion of the main but new,
half-formed land. All the swamps and marshy grounds that lie within the
beach, and near the extremity there are little else, are known, in
consequence of repeated surveys, to be lower than the level of
high-water; the bank of sand alone preventing an inundation. The country
is not only quite free from hills or inequalities of any kind, but has
scarcely a visible slope. Silebar River, which empties itself into Pulo
Bay, is totally unlike those in other parts of the island. The motion of
its stream is hardly perceptible; it is never affected by floods; its
course is marked out, not by banks covered with ancient and venerable
woods but by rows of mangroves and other aquatics springing from the
ooze, and perfectly regular. Some miles from the mouth it opens into a
beautiful and extensive lake, diversified with small islands, flat, and
verdant with rushes only. The point of Pulo is covered with the arau tree
(casuarina) or bastard-pine, as some have called it, which never grows
but in the seasand and rises fast.

(*Footnote. Since I formed this conjecture I have been told that such a
tradition of no very ancient date prevails amongst the inhabitants.)

ENCROACHMENT OF THE SEA.

None such are found toward Sungei-Lamo and the rest of th