546 Account of Sungle Ujong [Oct. 



The tin now assumes the shape of the ingots of commerce, of which 

 there are two kinds common in Sungie Ujong, viz. the Tdmpang and 

 Kepping or Bangka. The former weighs from half a catty to two 

 catties, and the latter, from fifty to sixty catties ; one catty is equal 

 to one pound and three-quarters. 



The Tdmpang is generally used hy the Malays. 



In the furnaces used by the Chinese, 800 lbs. of metal may be pro- 

 duced during the course of a night. Those of the Malays seldom 

 produce more than one-sixth of this quantity. 



From 100 parts of the ore, it is calculated, from 65 to 77 of pure 

 metal are produced. The ore of Banca yields 58. That of Junk 

 Ceylon, according to an assay made by Mr. Blake, 64|. 



The water is drained from the mines, if shallow, by means of a 

 channel, leading into a neighbouring stream ; but if deep, the Put dram 

 Ayer is had recourse to. This hydraulic machine is, I helieve, of 

 Chinese invention. The Rev. Mr. Tomlin, a zealous missionary, gives 

 the following description of it : 



" The apparatus is simple, consisting of a common water wheel, a 

 circular wooden chain about 40 feet in circumference, and a long 

 square box, or trough, through which it runs in ascending. The 

 wheel and chain, 1 think, revolve on a common axis, so that the mo- 

 tion of the former necessarily puts the latter into action. The chain 

 consists of square wooden floats, a foot distant from each other, 

 and strung as it were upon a continuous flexible axis, having a move- 

 able joint between each pair. 



" As the float-boards of the chain successively enter the lower part 

 of the box or trough, (immersed in water,) a portion of water is con- 

 stantly forced up by each, and discharged at the top. At one of the 

 mines we were much struck with the simple but efficient mode of 

 its application. There were three distinct planes or terraces rising 

 above each other. On the middle one was the wheel ; the lower 

 was the pit of the mine ; from the higher a stream of water fell and 

 turned the wheel, which, putting the whole machine into motion, 

 brought up another stream from the pit ; these two streams, from 

 above and below, uniting on the middle plane, run off in a sluice, by 

 which the ore was washed." 



Regarding the smelting of tin, in a recent number of Dr. Lardner's 

 Cabinet Cyclopaedia, (No. 54, pp. 21 and 22,) are the following 

 remarks on the advantages of pit coal over charcoal : " Authorities are 

 not agreed as to the time when pit coal first began to be substituted 

 in the reverberatory smelting houses (of Cornwall) for wood or char- 

 coal, though this is generally supposed to have been about 1680. 



