TIN MINING IN PERAK. 23 
On the hill at Lahat there are a number of shafts from 20 to 30 feet 
deep and 7 or 8 feet in diameter. These pits are said by local tradition 
to be the work of the Siamese. It would appear that they were sunk 
down to the tin-bearing layer, which was then excavated as far as it 
could be with safety, without the use of timber. Having got out all the 
wash that could be raised without the sides of the shaft falling in, it was 
abandoned and another sunk near it, and the same process carried on. 
At the present time there is no trace of the enlargement at the base of 
the shafts, but the subsidence of the ground, which would take place in 
a few months after they were abandoned, would naturally have obliter- 
ated this. 
Crawfurd, in his /f/zstory of the Indian Archipelago, in describing 
the tin mines of Banka says: ‘“ The aboriginal natives follow still ruder 
processes. They mine in the form of a narrow cylindrical shaft, capable 
of admitting one person only, and, if the bed of ore be found productive, 
follow it, at the risk of their lives, under the alluvial strata, which often 
falls in uponthem. They have no water-wheel, no aqueduct. To avoid 
the accumulation of water, they must always mine on the acclivities of 
elevated tracts, and for washing the mineral it must be conveyed, as it 
is extracted, to the nearest rivulet.” This account, written seventy-three 
years ago, describes very accurately the method that must have been 
employed in Kinta at the time that these shafts were sunk on the 
Lahat hill. 
Evidences of old Malay workings are everywhere to be found. The 
implements that have been brought to light in them are all like those 
now in use. The old Malayan ingots that have been dug up at different 
times are of many shapes, and a considerable amount of trouble has 
evidently been taken in forming some of the patterns from which they 
were cast, though some of the ingots have been simply formed by making 
a shallow depression in the casting-sand, into which the fluid metal has 
been poured. A common shape is a more or less conical cylinder, the 
upper part of which is six or eight sided, or decorated with a simple 
scallop pattern. Nearly cubical lumps of tin are also of frequent occur- 
rence; they are slightly tapered to allow of the pattern being easily with- 
drawn from the casting-sand. Some very curious ingots were found in 
Lower Perak, and were presented to the Museum by Mr. N. Denison; 
some of these are of the same shape as the Pahang tin-money—that is, 
like the mortar used by the Malays for husking padi, only solid in the 
centre, and with four small projecting knobs on the bottom. Another 
form is an obtuse cone, broken up into eight sides by raised ridges run- 
ning from the apex to the base. Some of these ingots were cast in piece- 
moulds, probably made of either baked clay or of a soft red stone which 
is now sometimes used for making the moulds in which are cast the tin 
chains that are attached to the circumference of cast-nets. Stone moulds 
have been found in Ireland, belonging to the Bronze Period, in which 
the bronze celts were cast, thus carrying back the use of this material 
far beyond historical times. Raised ridges are distinctly traceable on 
these ingots of tin, and mark the junctions of the separate portions of the 
piece-moulds in which they were cast. Piece-moulds are now never 
used in casting tin ingots—they are always cast in sand, from woodep 
patterns, both by the Malays and the Chinese, 
