MINERALOGY. 45 



surpass any thing I have ever seen in Cornwall, or in cab* 

 inet specimens. Specimens have been extracted of great 

 weight and richness, consisting of large inacled crystals 

 of tin on quartz, and contain more tin in proportion to 

 the bulk than any specimens 1 have before seen. The 

 largest, which measured about fourteen inches square by 

 twelve deep, was so heavy, as to require some exertion to 

 hold it steadily in both hands." 



In another report, Captain Tremenhere writes : " With 

 the view of ascertaining its value in the home market, 

 I transmitted, a box of average samples of the ore, to a 

 smelting establishment in Cornwall, (Messrs. Bolitho 

 & Co.) having extensive connection with the tin mines 

 of that country. In April 1843, Mr. Thomas Bolitho in- 

 formed me that—' The samples of once-washed ore pro- 

 duce about 70 per cent, of tin, and the twice-washed 

 yields nearly 75 per cent. The metal is very good, being 

 nl most free from alloy ; some of the samples which have 

 been sent to me from the Malayan peninsula contain 

 titanium. The ore appears to separate from the matrix very 

 easily. 



1 The consumption of tin throughout the world increases 

 so slowly, and the supply at present being more than equal 

 to the demand, there is little inducement to speculate in 

 tin mines. 



' The produce of Cornwall is G,000 tons per annum, 

 and we calculate that the quantity produced at Java to- 

 gether with what is raised in the Malayan peninsula, will 

 rather exceed the produce of Cornwall. The average price 

 of tin in Cornwall has been about 72s. per cwt, but it is 

 now as low as 565., which is the present price of the be=t 

 Straits tin, and tin mines are suffering greatly from the 

 depreciation in the value of their metai. 



' It may serve for your guidance to know, that at this 

 moment tin ore of the description of the sample twice- 

 washed, would fetch in England about £ 46 per ton.' 



" The following calculations of the probable result of a 

 shipment of tin ore, and of the metal, have been obligingly 

 made for me by two mercantile gentlemen of Maulmain. 

 They are based on the lowest prices which, according te 



