1841.] Report on the Tin of the Province of Mergui. 851 



17. This locality appears to be of very promising description, and 

 I have little doubt that if the work were aided by ordinary skill and 

 means, that a tin mine here would be productive. A vein of tin is, in 

 fact, exposed to the day, and would only require for a considerable 

 period of work the precaution of well-supported galleries and shafts, 

 to allow of its contents being easily extracted. 



The Kahan hill is, I conceive, an indication of a valuable repository 

 of tin. It is but a quarter of a mile from the creek communicating 

 with the river, which is accessible to any boats. Its proximity to 

 Mergui, offers also great facility for the procuring of labour and sup- 

 plies. 



18. The localities, therefore, which appear to hold out the best 

 prospects for tin are, first, for stream tin, the Thabawlick river and 

 the Thengdon river ; and for mine tin, the Kohan hill. They all 

 produce tin of the same nature and quality ; viz. crystals of the native 

 peroxide, being a combination of oxygen and tin only. 



19. No difficulty would be found in procuring labour from Mergui 

 for carrying on tin works at either of these places. 



20. The location of the coal mine on the Great Tenasserim river 

 has given rise to much additional cultivation along the banks of that 

 river, where there are many Kareen villages, from which parties on 

 the Thengdon could be supplied. Fruit trees, not indigenous to the 

 place, and other traces of a considerable population having once oc- 

 cupied its banks, are obseravable on this river. The banks of the 

 Little Tenasserim are thinly occupied by Siamese villages. The coun- 

 try in this direction, except near the banks of the river, is utterly 

 unpeopled, and appears always to have been so. 



21. Communication by water from the Thakiet to the Thabawlick 

 tin ground, is not open in the dry season, but the distance by land 

 is short. The produce of two lines of country, that of the vicinity 

 of the Great and Little Tenasserim rivers, passes the town of Tenas- 

 serim at the junction of these rivers, only 1 1 miles from the Thakiet, 

 and no difficulty in procuring subsistence for working parties on the 

 Thabawlick need be apprehended. 



(Signed) G. B. Trkmenhkere, 

 Capf. Executive Engineer, 

 Moulmain, ?j\ St August, 1841. Tenasserim, Division. 



