1843.] Visit to the Pakchan River. 531 



it would be very profitable to follow out with more complete and 

 expensive apparatus. 



1 1. After my return from the tin works we left Malewan, and proceed- 

 ing next day down the river, anchored at the mouth of the Rhenong 

 river, for the purpose of visiting the Siamese tin works and smelting 

 establishment on the Southern or Siamese side of the Pakchan. This 

 tidal creek is nearly dry at low water, but small junks come up with 

 the flood : it narrows considerably at three miles from its entrance, and is 

 very circuitous ; after three hours' pull in a boat in a S. E. direction, we 

 reached the settlement of Rhenong. 



The leading people here are Chinese, who have a high fenced en- 

 closure about eighty yards square, one side of which is occupied by 

 the smelting establishment. A few women were employed in sifting 

 tin ore* through a fine sieve. Only one furnace, or large crucible about 

 four feet high, of conical form and three feet diameter at top, formed 

 of baked clay, appeared to be in use, this was well worn, and a new 

 one was there ready to replace it. One pounding or stamping ma- 

 chine, with a tilting bar worked by the foot, the Chinese bellows, and 

 heaps of charcoal, were all the apparatus visible. No tin is collected 

 except during the rains, and the village did not contain more than 

 fifty families in all. 



The duty said to be paid to Siam by the Chinaman is six tons of 

 smelted tin per annum, for which he enjoys an entire monopoly. The 

 collectors of the ore are paid a nominal price of two dollars for eigh- 

 teen viss of ore ; but as the payment is made by small ingots of tin, the 

 only currency in use, the actual value received by workmen according 

 to the present selling price of the metal, is eight rupees per hundred 

 viss of ore: the same quantity being at Mergui worth forty rupees. 

 It appeared from the information we were able to collect of the re- 

 ported arrivals of junks at Rhenong for cargoes of tin, that not more 

 than from sixty to seventy tons are produced per annum. The spot 

 itself having a bold range of granite hills near, with level rice ground 

 between it and the stream, has a very pleasing appearance. A few 

 women were engaged in collecting tin ore in a clear stream running 

 over granite boulders, within a few minutes walk of the place, and the 



* Specimen B. 



