1842.] Second Report on the Tin of Mergui. 845 



cally conducted. The upper decomposed portions of granite which 

 have been exposed to view at the surface appear but indications of a 

 most valuable repository of tin. The sandstone in contact with it is 

 highly inclined to the horizon ; and holds no water, but this is procur- 

 able within three or four feet of the surface, at the base of the hill, and 

 could be easily raised for washing the ore by means of a Chinese wheel, 

 or by the chain and rag pump, or by any simple process. The hill itself 

 is not ten minutes walk from the main river, and a tidal creek touches 

 its south-west extremity near B, and another, the north-east, at C, by 

 either of which the produce of a mine can be carried away at high 

 water. The northernmost creek is accessible by large boats to with- 

 in 300 yards of the base of the hill. 



7. On June the 15th, Mr. Corbin writes, that two pits had been 

 sunk to the depth of eighteen feet on the ridge to the left of the 

 small pagoda, between the points B and A, in which the stratum was 

 found to be very thick and rich in tin. A pit near the pagoda itself 

 had been sunk to nearly the same depth, and a very good thick stra- 

 tum of tin soil found. Another on the east face, half way down the 

 slope from A, where work had been formerly carried on, had also 

 produced some very good ore ; but as the ground had been much bur- 

 rowed in former times, the surface soil was not very safe. Mr. Corbin 

 on the above date, despatched to Moulmain eighty viss of the clean 

 ore, which has been since received. On the 18th July, this gentleman 

 informed me, that owing to heavy and incessant rain for fifteen or 

 twenty days successively, the whole of the pits having no artificial 

 support, had fallen in, before which however 170 viss more of cleaned 

 ore had been collected, as well as the large specimens before alluded 

 to. These are specimens of great weight and richness, consisting of 

 large macled crystals of tin on quartz, and contain more tin in pro- 

 portion to their bulk, than any specimens I have before seen. The 

 largest which measured about fourteen inches square by twelve deep 

 was so heavy, as to require some exertion to hold it steadily in both 

 hands. Mr. Corbin had directed the whole of the upper soil at the 

 pits on the ridge between B and A to be removed, and the convicts 

 are still engaged in collecting tin from them. The stratum of tin soil, 

 he says, is exceedingly thick here, he has ascertained it to be upwards 

 of twelve feet. It is found, Mr. Corbin states, immediately " below the 



