334 On the Metalliferous Deposits of the Malay Peninsula. 



greater part from thirty-nine pits in one valley. In 1847, the pro- 

 duce appears to have been from 4000 to 5000 piculs. In 1848 

 it will probably rise to between 5000 and 7000 piculs, for the go- 

 vernment tithe upon it for the year has been rented for the unpre- 

 cedented sum of 8190 Sp. dollars, the revenue from this source 

 having been, in the two preceding years, 51020 and 53344 respec- 

 tively. 



Nothing can better shew how entirely the metalliferous character 

 of the Peninsula has escaped the mining enterprise of private Eu- 

 ropean capitalists, than the fact, that, in the island of Singapore, 

 where we have a line of junction between plutonic and sedimentary 

 rocks of above 20 miles in length, where tin was found in former 

 years in at least two localities, and where the same iron-ore with 

 which it is associated in Banka, abounds both in the igneous and 

 aqueous rocks, no interest has ever been awakened in the subject. 



In the Peninsula and Banka, tin has hitherto been procured by 

 digging pits in alluvial ti'acts where the ore is found generally in- 

 termixed with quartz particles, in a state resembling sand, varying 

 from fine to coarse.* We have large specimens with the ore ad- 



* In most cases it appears to be properly stream-ore, i. e., the fragments and 

 particles of disintegrated rock that have been borne to lower levels by rain, tor- 

 rents, and streams. We think, however, that there are both tin and gold pits 

 in which the rock has been decomposed and disintegrated in situ, and a careful 

 examination would probably prove that there are many such. The clays in 

 our Peninsular valleys are not always alluvial, and in the higher appear most 

 often to mark the decomposition of the subjacent rock. In a recent excellent 

 geological work, by Professor Ansted (Geology, Introductory, Descriptive, and 

 Practical, vol. ii., p. 281), it is erroneously stated that in Banka the ores of 

 tin are entirely obtained by sifting the gravel and sand of rivers. In Banka 

 and the Peninsula, the beds of streams are seldom resorted to, save to obtain in- 

 dications of the probable abundance of '' tin-sand" in the vicinity. One of 

 the narrow valleys between the parallel ranges or branches of the low hills is 

 selected, and, if tin be found, pits from ten to sixty feet in depth are dug, and 

 carried regularly up the valley, a new one being opened as soon as the last is 

 exhausted. In this way the entire breadth of a valley is sometimes excavated by 

 successive pits throughout a length of two or three miles, if the tin-sand be found 

 continuous. 



In Malacca the tin-sand is generally found at the bottom of a series of allu- 

 vial layers. This is also the case in Cornwall, where it appears to be attri- 

 buted to diluvial action. In the Malacca valleys, there is no evidence of dilu- 

 vial action. The accumulation of the tin-ore in the bottom of the valley may 

 be explained, in some cases, by the decomposition of the rock, and washing 

 away of the clayey and lighter siliceous particles ; the tin-ore and associated 

 quartz remaining by their gravity. In other cases it may probably be ex- 

 plained by the consideration that, in the earliest ages of the valleys, the disinte- 

 gration must have been more rapid, and the fall of the valleys greater. The tor- 

 rents in rains wouid have a considerable impetus, and carry forward the dis- 

 integrated fragments of the rugged and naked ravines. In the course of time 

 these would be smoothed into gentle slopes covered with vegetation, and the 

 slopes of the bottoms of the valleys would gradually decrease as their mouths 

 became choked with mud-flats and sand-banks, and the alluvial deposit spread 

 back, raising the level of the valleys. 



We have dwelt at some length on tin, because it is the principal natural pro- 



