Page:Journal Of The Indian Archipelago And Eastern Asia Series.i, Vol.3 (IA in.ernet.dli.2015.107696).pdf/590

 plastic. Of all the sedimentary soils the sandstone and very arenaceous shales furnish the worst. Of the alluvial soils, the sand, particularly when it contains a mixture of vegetable matter or triturated shells, is the proper soil of the cocoanut, and the vegetable mud of the sago. When the country has been better and longer drained and cultivated, the latter soil will become a rich mould. At present it is every where too wet and sour to make a fertile soil. Rice is grown on some patches of it. The bluish sea mud contains good ingredients, but clay is in excess, and the animal matter in it appears to assist in rendering it hard and untractable when it is not saturated with water. Even for such a soil nature has provided plants useful to man, for the betelmut and some of the indigenous fruit trees grow well in it with little cultivation. Although there are cultivated plants adapted to every kind of soil in the district, and it has indigenous tribes who can live exclusively on its yams, sago, fish and wild animals, it is incapable of feeding a population of the more civilised races, and the latter must always be dependent on other countries for the great necessary of life—rice.

The rocks which are used for economical purposes are not numerous. The only edible one is the fine clay called ampo, which is made into thin cakes, smoked and kept for use. The iron gravel and rocks have, during late years, been extensively used for metalling the roads in and near town. They soon acquire a compact, and hard smooth surface. The plutonic rocks and the indurated sandstones and conglomerates are used for the foundations of houses. Lateritic stones are sometimes used by the Malays as pedestals for the posts on which their small houses rest. Granite is used for steps, mile stones, tomb stones, &c. Of the blueish alluvial clays the bricks and tiles are made of which the town of Singapore is built. The fine kaolin which abounds has been found the best adapted of any in India for the manufacture of porcelain, but no manufactory has ever been established.