TIN AND ITS NATIVE LAND. 233 



TIN AND ITS NATIVE LAND. 



By M. BRAU DE SAINT POL LIAS. 



TIN, which, every one knows, but which few, except men of 

 science and metallurgists, are acquainted with, is one of the 

 most precious and most interesting metals. After gold and silver, 

 it is intrinsically the most precious of those in use. It is nearly 

 of the same color and almost as bright as silver, but has less 

 resistance and is less valuable. When warmed by friction, it has 

 a pronounced odor and taste. When it is bent, the derangement 

 of the crystals of which its mass is formed causes it, without any 

 fracture taking place, to emit a peculiar sound which metallur- 

 gists call its cry, and by means of which an expert can nearly de- 

 termine its degree of purity. The places where tin is produced 

 are few, scattered sparsely over the surface 'of the globe ; and it 

 disguises itself under the form of a blackish mineral which, to 

 the profane eye, gives no sign of the treasure that is within it. 



.One of the richest as well as most ancient tin mining dis- 

 tricts is in the Malay Peninsula, the Golden Chersonesus of the 

 ancients. The name of the province, Perak, signifies silver ; but 

 it is peculiarly the province of tin. A few years ago we visited 

 the mines there, ascending the Larrout River in a Chinese junk to 

 Telok-Kartang, where a warm reception awaited us from the Eng- 

 lish colonial authorities. Thence we went, in a country wagon, 

 and afoot after it had broken down, through a country where 

 tigers are not rare, to Thaiping, the principal toAvn in the district. 

 We found lodging in the house of the assistant resident on the top 

 of the Boukit Bandera, which appeared to our eyes at the moment 

 a veritable castle of the fairy tales. Opening the window in the 

 morning, we could look from our elevated position upon the coun- 

 try of tin, which lay in nearly its full extent before us. Large 

 mounds of white earth and water-holes of strange form, breaking 

 up the surface at different points around the ham pang, marked 

 where mines had been worked or were still in working. Chinese 

 coolies were climbing up and down the notched tree-trunks which 

 served as ladders to the open pits, bearing on their shoulders bam- 

 boos, at each end of which hung the baskets in which the mineral 

 was carried. Hydraulic wheels, which were nothing but primi- 

 tive wooden Archimedes' screws, or norias with inclined buckets, 

 were turning with harsh creakings, lifting the water out of the 

 bottom of the excavations. Animation prevailed over the whole 

 plain, in which were to be seen by turns arid spots of mineral 

 refuse, or exuberant tropical vegetation. Farther on the country 

 grew hilly, and the view was at last shut off by a semicircle of 

 high mountains, in which are found the true mines, in quartz 



TOL. XXXVII. 18 



