BANCA. 535 



strata, and obtained by washing, just as in the 

 process of washing similar alluvial deposits for gold. 

 When the beds of all the basins on the island have 

 been thoroughly washed, the yield of tin vnll be at 

 an end, because it does not occui', as at Cornwall, in 

 veins in the granite, but only in small scattered 

 grains. The washing is almost wholly done by 

 Chinese, who chiefly come from Amoy. 



The income of Banca* has been for some time 

 over three million guilders per year, after deduct- 

 ing the salaries of all the officials on the island, and 

 the annual expense of the garrison. The chief engi- 

 neer thinks that about two-thirds of all the tin on 

 the island has now been taken out, but that the 

 present yield vnll continue for some years, and a less 

 one for many years after. This tin-bearing range 

 of granite begins as far north on the west coast of 

 the peninsula of Malacca as Tavoy. It has been 

 obtained at Tenasserim, and on the island of Junk 

 Ceylon, and large quantities are annually taken out 

 at Malacca. It is also found on the Sumatra side of 

 the strait, in the district of Kampar. The range 

 reappears in the islands of Banca and Billiton, and 

 again in Bali, at the eastern end of Java. 



Mai/ 1-ith. — In the evening the steamer arrived 

 from Batavia. For fellow-passengers I found the cap- 

 tain and doctor of an English ship that had lately 

 been burned in the Strait of Sunda while bound from 

 Amoy to Demarara with a cargo of coolies. A pas- 

 senger fi-om her was also on board, who had written 



* Tlie population of the island is 54,339. Of those, 110 arc Euro- 

 peans; 37,070 natives; 17,097 Chinese, and 50 Arabs. 



