140 R. A. F. PENROSE 



Location of the Kijita district. — The tin region most carefully 

 examined by the writer was the Kinta district in Perak, and this 

 will therefore be described more in detail than the other dis- 

 tricts mentioned. The Kinta district has no definite boundaries, 

 but the name is a general term applied to an area in the south- 

 ern part of the state of Perak, in the valley of the Kinta river. 

 This stream is a branch of the Perak river which flows through 

 the state of the same name into the Strait of Malacca below 

 Teluk Anson. The Kinta district comprises a more or less 

 inclosed valley about 40 miles in length in a north-and-south 

 direction, about 30 miles in width at its south end, and about 5 

 miles at its north end. To the east is the high granitic range, 

 forming the backbone of the peninsula and rising in some places 

 about 8,000 feet above the sea ; to the west is a lower granitic 

 range, rising some 3,000 feet and separating the valley from the 

 Strait of Malacca. Between these ranges are lower mountains 

 and areas of limestone, surrounded and partly covered with 

 great tracts of alluvium. Twenty years ago the Kinta district 

 was almost unknown, and Thaipingand Kwala Lumpur were the 

 great tin centers, but now it is the most important district on the 

 peninsula. It is intersected from north to south by a railway 

 which is being extended at both ends. Among some of the 

 more important mining centers in the district are Campar, 

 Gopeng, Batu Gajah, Tronoh, Cacha, Lalang, Papan, Lahat, 

 Chongkat Pari, and Ipoh, the last being the commercial center 

 of the district ; in fact, the alluvium over large areas has been 

 completely stripped from the bed-rock in search of tin, and has 

 been overturned in great piles, leaving the once fertile soil in a 

 condition of desolation similar to the old gold placer diggings 

 in parts of California. 



Mode of occurrence of the alluvial titi in the Kinta district. 

 — Most of the tin ore of the Kinta district is derived from 

 alluvial deposits varying in character according to the nature of 

 the rocks from which they have been derived and the distance to 

 which they have been transported. In the larger valleys where 

 the detritus from areas of different rocks has been mixed, the 

 alluvium is commonly composed of a heterogeneous mass of 



