24 



Paragraphs to be added to Captain G. B. Tremenheere's Report on the 

 Tin of Mergui, communicated to the Asiatic Society, through the Se- 

 cretariat of the General Department. 



Of the existence of tin in considerable quantities there cannot, from 

 the facts above stated, be much question ; and from the trial of the pro- 

 duce of one man's labour in a given time, there appears to be sufficient 

 to justify every expectation of a profitable employment of labour on 

 an extensive scale. 



The results, however, which are given in detail, can only be consider- 

 ed rough approximations to the probable out-turn of tin, with an esta- 

 blishment properly superintended. Much economy in labour might be 

 effected in collecting the sand and gravel for the washers, but no better 

 mode could, I think, be adopted in separating the tin in the first instance, 

 than by people accustomed to work with the flat conical- shaped troughs 

 before described. The quantity collected would fully repay the employ- 

 ment of men in this operation. 



The tin as produced by the washers, should be placed on sloping 

 boards, and water conducted over it from a trough pierced with holes 

 for the purpose, in order to get rid of foreign particles, and it would 

 then, after by being finely pounded, be ready for smelting. Of all 

 metals, tin is in this process the least troublesome after the ore is freed 

 from the earthy and silicious particles, with which in other countries it 

 is often mixed. The crystallized form in which the ore is here found, 

 renders its separation extremely easy, and the whole processes of stamp- 

 ing and dressing, which in England are tedious and expensive operations, 

 can thus be dispensed with. No arsenic or sulphur being mixed with 

 the ore, it need not be roasted before it is placed in the furnace. 



It will thus be seen, that the tin of the Mergui province offers no 

 ordinary inducement to the outlay of capital without much of the risk, 

 uncertainty, and large previous outlay usually attending mining adven- 

 tures. 



