332 On the Metalliferous Deposits of the Malay Peninsula. 

 Labuan. Kiangi. 



Carbon 64-52 



Hydrogen ••• 4' 74 



Nitrogen.... 0-80 



Oxygen 20-75 



Ash 7-74 



Sulphur 1-45 



100-00 100-00 10000 



It shonld he observed that several hundred tons of the Labuan 

 coal have been raised, and that the bed is now worked. The steamers 

 which have used this coal, though it more approaches the character 

 of candle or canncl coal, than the ordinary bituminous varieties, report 

 well of it. — (tS'ir //. De la Beche's Anniversary Discourse for 1847.) 



On the Metalliferous Deposits of the Malay Peninsula. 



Metals. — The tendency to the production of metalliferous ores at 

 and near the junction of plutonic and sedimentary rocks, whicli has 

 been observed in many countries, might have led us to anticipate a 

 large share of metallic riches for the Peninsula. In reality, it pro- 

 baljly abounds in some ores far beyond conception. 



Iron-ores are everywhere found, and in the south they exist in 

 vast profusion. In some places the strata have been completely 

 saturated with iron ; and here the bare surface of the ground, strewed 

 with blackish scoriform gravel and blocks, presents a strange contrast 

 to the exuberant vegetation of surrounding tracts, appearing as if it 

 had been burned and blasted by subterranean fires. Much of the 

 ordinary forms of iron-marked rocks, which are so common, and so 

 little i-cgarded for their metallic contents, that in Singapore they are 

 used to macadamize the roads, contain often nearly 60 per cent, of 

 pure metal. 



The whole length and breadth of the Peninsula, there can be little 

 doubt, abounds in tin-ore. The uniformity, we might almost say 

 unity, of its plutonic character, warrants the inference, that ores found 

 plentifully in many different and distant localities, where they have 

 been sought for, exist also in the intermediate tracts which have not 

 yet been examined. At the two extremities of the peninsular zone 

 of elevation, Junk-Ceylon and Bunka, tin-sand is diffused in such 

 quantity, that its collection has never had any other limit than the 

 number of persons employed in it. In Junk-Ceylon and Phunga, 

 under a barbarous government, about 13,000 piculs* are annually dug 



* A picul is equal to ISSJ pounds. 



