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



sandstone rock, and consists principally of quartz and mica with ap- 

 parently a small proportion of the sandstone, giving it a reddish colour : 

 in some spots where the mica predominates it appears dark yellow ; in 

 this the ore is found scattered in masses ; but lower down, it assumes 

 the general form of whitish clay, where the ore is very little seen but in 

 washing. The hill in this neighbourhood was in former days much 

 burrowed, a pit with short galleries being met within a very few feet." 



The following is a list of specimens accompanying this report, which 

 are illustrative of the produce of Kahan : — 



No. 1. — A box containing about twenty-one viss of clean ore of 

 the native peroxide of tin. 



No. 2 — Specimens of various sizes, not selected for their richness, 

 but shewing the mode of occurrence of the tin ore in small strings 

 and bunches, imbedded in the matrix of decomposed granite ; some of 

 these consist of nearly pure kaolin or soft felspar : in others mica 

 and quartz predominate. 



No. 3. — Specimens of pure kaolin, from the upper part of the ex- 

 cavations at A and B. 



No. 4. — Specimens of macled crystals of peroxide of tin or quartz 

 taken from a pit D, between B and A : with this several similar and 

 larger pieces were found in the loose soil at the bottom of what was 

 apparently an old Burmese shaft, and though Mr. Corbin writes, on 

 the 9th of August, that no more had been met with, it appears from 

 the extreme richness of the specimens, to be a valuable indication of 

 what may be found at greater depths than have been hitherto pene- 

 trated. They existed probably in a cavity of the granite mass, before 

 it was disintegrated by atmospheric causes, and wherein the large 

 crystals of quartz and tin were deposited. 



8. Ore rich in tin has now been found at seven different parts of the 

 hill, chiefly in the line B A C, but near A, at more than 100 feet to 

 the east of this direction ; and Mr. Blundell, who has just returned 

 from Mergui, informs me, that Mr. Corbin is pursuing his excavations 

 to the westward of this line towards the highest part of the hill, and 

 that the farther they proceed in this direction, the richer the ore 

 becomes. This is scarcely, therefore, the character of a vein of ore, 

 but may be more properly termed a bed of decomposed granite, contain- 

 ing tin in great abundance, in small bunches and strings throughout. 



