64 Geological Society. 



few parts of the world, yet that it can be clearly proved to have 

 been employed from very early historical times : he next enters 

 into various interesting inquiries respecting the names under which 

 it was known by the several nations of antiquity, and the country 

 from whence it was procured, considering it more probable that the 

 Greeks and Romans were supplied from the East, than that com- 

 merce should have extended in very early times to such a remote 

 country as Cornwall. 



After some short notices of the old geographers and travellers 

 who have spoken of the tin of India, the author enters into an ac- 

 count of the several localities in which it has been discovered, the 

 situations in which it usually occurs, and the methods of extracting 

 and smelting it. 



The island of Banca, situated at the eastern extremity of Sumatra, 

 is the most celebrated of the Indian tin districts. The surface of 

 this island presents short ranges of granitic hills, flanked by inferior 

 ones which abound in red ironstone. The tin occurs in the low 

 alluvial deposits at the base of the granitic hills, and about twenty- 

 five feet from the surface. The ore is a peroxide of tin yielding 

 about 60 per cent, of metal. From 1813 to 1816, whilst the island 

 was in possession of the East India Company, three millions of 

 pounds were raised annually, and since that time the quantity is 

 believed to have increased. It is stated on the authority of Captain 

 Tremenhere, that some of the tin of Banca is extracted from the 

 side of a hill about 300 feet high. 



The island of Lingen, at the southernmost point of the peninsula of 

 Malacca, particularly in the neighbourhood of Palembang on the east 

 coast, also produces tin, as does the island of Sumatra at various points 

 along the eastern coast, and near Bencoolen on the western coast. 



The whole peninsula of Malacca on its west side is also a stanni- 

 ferous district. A range of lofty granitic hills runs from north to south 

 through this country : the lower ridges of the neighbourhood of Ma- 

 lacca consist of conglomerate, with clay ironstone, which agrees in 

 character and composition with a rock common on the Malabar coast, 

 described by Dr. Buchanan under the name of Laterite. Severe shocks 

 of earthquakes are occasionally felt in Malacca ; and there are several 

 springs with temperatures of 110° and 180° F. The tin ore is ex- 

 tracted from the low alluvial plains at the base of the granitic range, 

 and is not unfrequently mixed with gold. The exported quantity of 

 the latter amounts to about 19,800 oz. annually. The ore occurs 

 in the horizontal seams of considerable extent, and from six to 

 twenty inches in thickness, at a variable depth from the surface. 



The author next describes the native processes for working and 

 smelting the ore, and states that about 70 per cent, of metal is ob- 

 tained at a cost of twenty-three shillings the cwt. : on the author- 

 ity of Capt. Newbold, the gross annual quantity of tin raised in the 

 peninsula of Malacca is given at 4,325,000 lbs. 



The British provinces on the coast of Tenassirim contain about 

 30,000 square miles, having a north and south range of mountains 

 for their eastern boundary. The mineral products of these provinces 

 are tin, iron, and coal. The north and south range is stated by 



