36 MINERALOGY. 



alogists have been equally puzzled with it. There can be 

 no mistake however, in the identification, for I have spe- 

 cimens before me, labelled by one of the first mineralogists 

 in America, differing in no important respect from the 

 Tavoy mineral. 



METALIFEROUS MINERALS. 



FLATINA. 



Dr. Royle says that platina is found in Burmah ; but on 

 what authority '? Captain Glover had a specimen which 

 he obtained from a priest in Tavoy, that he thought re« 

 sembled platina more than any ether metal ; and I had a 

 specimen of a Tavoy mineral with the general aspect of 

 platina, which occasioned me no little perplexity, until 

 I found that it was a mixed metal formed of silver, bis- 

 muth, zinc, and some other things to aid the alchemists 

 in their search for " the philosopher's stone." 



GOLD. 



Though not quite so abundant as in California, yet 

 there is perhaps, no mineral except iron, more universally 

 diffused over the Provinces, than gold. It is found in the 

 lead near their northern boundary, it is washed from the 

 sands of the Tenasserim on the south, and the streams, 

 that tumble from the high granite mountains between Yay 

 and Monmagon, are constantly 'rolling down their golden 

 sands' into the valleys around. It has been collected, in 

 small quantities in the tin deposits east of Tavoy, Mr. 

 O' Riley found gold in the tin from Henzai, half a degree 

 south of Yai, and " almost all the creeks, " says Dr. Hei- 

 fer, " coming from the eastern or Siamese side of the 

 Tenasserim river, contain gold. The greatest quantity 

 is obtained close to the old town of Tenasserim where 

 people wash it, and obtain sometimes one anna's weight 

 each, during the rainy season." 



The richest deposit of gold in the Provinces, is however, 

 at the head waters of Tavoy river, where it is found in an 

 alluvial or diluvial formation of red earth and pebbles,very 



