842 Second Report on the Tin of Mergui. [No. 129. 



soil, from which these small isolated hills rise abruptly unconnected 

 with each other, and detached entirely from the high granite and 

 slate ranges which stretch along the peninsula. Except a small con- 

 nected group at the town of Mergui, these have all the same exterior 

 character, but Kahan is the only one in which tin has been found in 

 situ. It occurs here imbedded in decomposed granite, consisting of a 

 large proportion of felspar completely decomposed, termed kaolin or 

 china clay, with quartz and mica, which appear to be its only con- 

 stituents. A soft red sandstone is in immediate contact with the 

 granite. 



3. Along the same line of coast, in the southern part of the 

 Malayan peninsula, in the provinces of Malacca and Johore for in- 

 stance, the tin localities are similarly situated in small, detached hills, 

 having no apparent connection with the main ranges, and the ore is 

 procured from a mixture of quartz, gravel, and china clay, which in 

 description very much resembles the surface soils at Kahan. At 

 Mergui, there is evidence of the destruction and denudation of granite 

 hills, and of a considerable wash and deposit of debris from the east- 

 ward towards the Coast. The small cantonment there stands on the 

 highest of a group, composed entirely of rounded fragments of quartz 

 and sandstone, identical with that which touches the bed of decom- 

 posed granite at Kahan, with scales of mica, white felspathic clay, and 

 likewise containing tin, which has been washed out of the gravels near 

 the town, and from similar gravel hillocks in the neighbourhood which 

 fringe the sea border. Localities of stream tin near the Coast south of 

 the mouths of the Tenasserim are becoming known, and last year I 

 penetrated to a range of hills about twenty miles from the Coast, 

 consisting exclusively of granite, from the debris of which tin was 

 obtained. I am for this reason inclined to think, that many of the 

 small isolated hills before mentioned, as well as others in the Ioa 

 ground to the southward, will be found to consist, like Kahan, oi 

 nuclei of granite, containing tin, which have resisted the course of 

 events, and have been left like islands in the alluvial plain between the 

 high ranges and the sea. 



4. The Kahan hill is 1921 yards in circuit at base, having a general 

 direction of north-east and south-west ; its highest points, C and F, are 

 not more than 150 feet above the level of the surrounding rice fields. 



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