74$ 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[April i, 1885. 



Nevertheless the fact remains that the tea duties 

 are plainly indefensible. And it may be confidently 

 stated, that, had the Planters' Association of Ceylon 

 been as deeply interested in tea from the beginning of 

 its history as it has been in coffee, the duty on tea 

 would not at this present time bear so overwhelming 

 a ratio to the value of the article. 



To those, should there be any, who oppose any move- 

 ment against against the tea duties on the ground of 

 the hopelessness of the position, the answer is that 

 experience has shown tliat only by pressure in season 

 and out of season can any effect in a matter of this 

 kind be produced. Let the course of events in regard 

 to the reduction of the coffee duties be borne in mind. 

 And as to finding the means whereby a loss on a 

 change in the tea duties may be recouped, that is a 

 question not for tho planters who suffer by the pre- 

 sent anomalous position, but for the politicians who 

 bave brought it to pass. 



THE REV. J. E. TENISON WOODS ON THE 



MINES AND MINERALS OF THE MALAY 



PENINSULA. 



The report of a lecture so entitled, delivered at 

 Hongkong, intensifies our desire that the able Roman 

 Catholic priest who has done so much for practical geo- 

 logical science, first in Australia and nowin the Straits 

 of Malacca, could be induced to visit Ceylon and 

 report on its geology and mineralogy. "We do not 

 think he would confirm the views of the author of 

 a notice of the geology of Uva who speaks of "trap" 

 rock in an island where, in the judgment of most 

 scientists, there is no trace of volcanio action, but 

 he would probably set at rest the question of the 

 existence of coal or other valuable minerals. We 

 quote from tho Straits Times as follows : — 



From what he had seen and all lie had read of 

 the tin deposits cf the Malay Peninsula, he con- 

 cluded that they were, without exception, the richest 

 in the world. He was aware that there was a pre- 

 vailing impression here that this was not the case, 

 but still it was perfectly true. There was no more 

 widely distributed deposit of tin than in the Malay 

 Peninsula, at least not of that particular kind of tin 

 deposit which was termed stream tin. They were 

 very widely spread and the deposits in themselves 

 were practically inexhaustible. The lecturer proceeded 

 to show by a map the peculiar formation of the 

 peniusula remarking that its shape was singularly 

 developed. There was an immense range of mount- 

 ains, a few of which had been explored, and 

 some of which he was the first to explore, while 

 others, much higher, had been effectively explored by 

 a French gentleman who had since gone home. Some 

 of the mountains reached a height of 10,000 feet, 

 and there were, he believed, some even higher than 

 that. These mountains, in about the centre of the 

 peninsula, began to decline uutil they came to a 

 part at which there was so little elevation that boats 

 might be dragged from one river to another on the 

 oppo-ite side. It was there the richest part of the 

 tin deposit was to be found ; there had been the 

 greatest disturbance, and there was the greatest 

 mineral richness. In a disputed country between the 

 territory of Perak and Siam there were tin veins. 

 He should speak briefly about these veins, and he 

 might say that this was the only case he had met 

 with where there were veins of tin in the peninsula; 

 elsewhere, in the south it was in alluvial deposits. 

 This was a very important thiDg to bear in mind, 

 because he had met in Hongkong several persons who 

 had asked him if there was not something peculiar 

 about the tin deposits there. To these he would 

 answer that there was nothing peculiar at all about them, 



they were exactly like stream deposits all over the 

 world— no difference. He bad been asked something 

 about pockets ; he knew pockets were a subject in con- 

 nection with mines about which people were partic- 

 ularly tender — (laughter), — but there were no such 

 things as pockets as they were generally understood 

 which made them different from deposits in other 

 parts of the world. The deposits of tin had been 

 accumulating for ages from the wearing down of the 

 granite rocks. He was also asked if there were no 

 main s< urces from which the tin was derived, ai,d 

 he answered " No, nothing of the kind was found in 

 what was known as stream tin as far as his experi- 

 ence .went." It was most important to bear this in 

 mind, that wherever stream tin was discovered, 

 veins were not found, and where veins were 

 found, there was no stream tin. Had time 

 allowed he could have explained the reason of this, 

 but he had now to confine his attention to what 

 stream tin was. Let them suppose that they had 

 in the mountains of tho Malay Peninsula the repre- 

 sentation of those forces which had upheaved their 

 rugged summits, which had in course of time, through 

 the slowly acting forces of the weather, worn them 

 into peaks and gullies as they are now seen. The 

 rev. gentleman said his hearers must excuse him if 

 he appeared to enter into explanations of things that 

 seemed self-evident ; as he proceeded the reason would 

 be apparent. This decomposing and wearing down 

 of the granite by the action of the weather was 

 owing to the irou coutaiued in the felspar being 

 easily rusted,* and thus the granite was disintegrated 

 till nothing was left to represent it but heaps of 

 tine sand. With this sand there was washed down 

 by the force of water grains of tin that had been 

 contained in the granite. Whatever was contained in 

 the granite was washed down into the valleys, and 

 a great deal of alluvial granite was carried out to 

 sea in the form of a fine mud which discoloured the 

 water, but was finally deposited on the coast, and 

 was the cause of those immense mangrove flats and 

 mud islands that were to be found about the Malay 

 Peninsula on the west coast. The lighter portions 

 were carried away the furthest, and the heavier por- 

 tions remained at the foot of the bills, and it was 

 with Ihe latter that the liu was found. It was found 

 at the bottom of the deposit, and it might be said 

 that if it was thus deposited it must have been ouly 

 the surface of the granite which was rich in tin, aud 

 it was washed down first, and subsequently covered 

 with alluvial sand. But it would not be right to 

 argue in this way. The granite and tin had been 

 mingled together so generally that probably a very 

 minute examination of the granite would have been 

 required to perceive the tin it contained, except in 

 exceptional instances, where it was found in little 

 streaks, and bosses, aud lumps. As to the reason 

 of the tin being gathered together in the lowest 

 portion of the deposit, cassiteria was more than 

 several times the 'weight of common quartz saud, and 

 sauk rapidly, but its weight alone would not ac- 

 couut for the fact. The tin was found in some 

 ancient stream bed — not the mere breadth the stream 

 now occupied, as in the course of ages the stream 

 would have travelled over a wide valley. The mud 

 it brought down obstructed its own course, and caused 

 it to constantly change its channel, and it was carried 

 backwards aud forwards across the valley and the 

 deposit was washed much in the way it was done 



* This fact of. iron being a decomposing agent has an 

 important bearing on our ferruginous tea soil as well as 

 on tin' change of felsp;ithic gneiss into fertile laterite. 

 \\ hether haul rook or stiff clay, what is wanted to en- 

 sure decomposition is full exposure to the atmosphere. 

 Tho clay should be opened with the fork. — Ed. 



