366 Remarks on the Geology of Tavoy. 



gneiss forms but a small portion of the " mountains run- 

 ning from north to south/ 5 as the specimens prove. Slate is 

 manifestly the prevailing rock, and Professor Phillip says, 

 " most of the productive tin lodes (veins) have been found in 

 a slaty country ." When the tin veins are discovered, copper 

 will perhaps be found associated with them, for with tin and 

 a little gold as here, Cornwall also produces copper, and Dr. 

 Heifer met with ores of copper on some of the Mergui 

 islands, which may be considered a part of the tin field, 

 stretching as it does down to Malacca. To me it seems pro- 

 bable, that Tavoy is rich in hidden treasures — now all is 

 in a state of nature ; there have been no excavations, no 

 borings, no adequate survey of the field ; so that our golden 

 sands, and metallic soil, and slaty mountain peaks, are all 

 that can be rationally expected, for veins of tin are never seen 

 on the surface. 



When the Romans first landed in Britain, the tin resources 

 of Cornwall were probably as little known as those of Tavoy 

 are at the present moment ; for, although the Phenicians are 

 said to have early obtained that metal from England, it 

 was probably in small quantities from the stream works, in- 

 asmuch as Diodorus Siculus, who lived in the days of Julius 

 Caesar, makes no mention of tin, though he is careful to 

 speak of iron among its productions, together with gold 

 and silver, slaves, and hunting dogs, (icvyap KwyyeTiKovg.) 



List of Specimens, referred to in the foregoing Paper.* 



A. Sandstone like B, but coarse. 



B. Sandstone, (old.) 



* These specimens are interesting not only as illustrative of the above valuable 

 observations, but as the first collection of the kind from the same quarter that 

 appears to have been made with tho requisite care. They are therefore deposited 

 in the Coal Committee's cabinet, as they seem to bear upon the object of the Com- 

 mittee's inquiries. The relative position of the sandstone to the slate rocks on the 

 one side and the coal formation on the other, its development and peculiarities 

 in Tavoy and other Tenasserim Provinces, would be an interesting object of in- 

 quiry. — Ed. 



