W. R. Jones — Supposed Occurrence of Tin in Springs. 537 



experimental data, the facts fjiven in the present paper may help 

 others to attempt the explanation for which geologists are waiting. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXXVII. 



East Peak, Sawa Base Camp, Ribawe Mountains, Mozambique, Portuguese 

 East Africa. Lat. 14° 56' 39" S. ; long. 38° 17' 10" E. Height 2,889 feet. 

 The banding of the gneiss and its ' dip ' from south to north (right to left) can 

 be seen along the hillside above the hut. The great scars which break up its 

 otherwise smooth surface mark the position of a series of caves which have 

 developed along the direction of dip. 



II. — On thk supposed case of Tin av statu nascenti in the 

 Malay Peninsula. 



M. 



By W. E. Jones, B.Sc. London, F.G.S., Assistant Geologist F.M.S. 

 Communicated at the request of the Government Geologist F.M.S. 



STANISLAS MEUNIER, in a paper entitled " Examen 

 Chimique d'eaux minerales provenant de Malaise. Mineral 

 d'etain de formation actuelle'V describes analyses of two waters 

 brought by M. J. Errington De la Croix from Ayer Panas and 

 Cheras, Malay Peninsula, and also of a mineral specimen found in 

 one of the springs. A copy of the original paper is, unfortunately, 

 not available here, but Dr. Bott, in a paper entitled "Thermal 

 Springs of Selangor and Malacca ",- quotes Meunier as follows : — 



"A mineral found in the spring is described, having a specific 

 gravity of 2-1, cavernous and tuberculous structure, whitish grey 

 colour, with small black dendritic patches in it. The composition of 

 this is given as — 



% 

 Silica .... 91-8 



Water 

 Tin oxide 

 Iron 

 Aluminium 



100-00 

 "From this the author draws the remarkable conclusion that this 

 substance is a kind of opal similar to geyserite, but containing tin us 

 a peculiar and characteristic constituent. 



" He goes on to say that this is the first time that tin has been 

 formed in statu nascenti, as it were, viz., in the act of deposition from 

 its mother liquor, and looks upon this as an important contribution to 

 the theory of the formation of tin-ore." 



At the suggestion of Mr. Scrivener, the Government Geologist 

 F.M.S., I visited the above springs with the view of testing Meunier's 

 assertion, and the object of this short pa[)er is to prove that tin has 

 not been found in statu nascenti in these or any other springs in 

 Malaya. 



^ Pubhshed in J. ex, p. 108.5 of the Compt. Eend., and quoted by Dr. Bott. 

 ^ Dr. W. Bott, F.C.S., F.G.C.S., etc., Journal of the Straits Branch of the 

 Royal Asiatic Society, December, 1891, pp. 43-62. 



