1900.] on Life in Indo-China. 277 



In conclusion, the lecturer went on to speak of the mineral wealth 

 of the country. He said that the coal deposits of Tong-King are 

 certainly extraordinary for the great thickness to which they attain, 

 and recent trials go to show that Tons-King coal will soon have an 

 assured position in the markets of the East, but these beds appear to 

 be the only ones of really workable character. Gold occurs in very 

 fine grains over wide areas in the alluvial sands of the great river 

 systems, but no systematic hydraulic woi'k has ever been attempted on 

 a large scale. It is doubtful, he added, how far these deposits would 

 repay European methods of working in a country where transport of 

 machinery and commissariat is at present so expensive, and where the 

 loss by sickness makes the labour question such a serious one. He 

 also referred to the tin deposits in the Malay Peninsula and in the 

 island of Junk-Ceylon. Speaking of the latter, he said that the 

 whole island might be said to be one vast tin mine. Everybody talks 

 of tin, everything smells of tin, the valleys have all been turned up- 

 side down for it, the mountains have been gashed into chasms which 

 can be seen many miles away, and the jungle has been felled and 

 cleared, all for the tin which underlies and pervades the whole. 



Want of time prevented the ruby and sapphire deposits being 

 more than touched upon by the lecturer. 



[H. W. S.] 



