COLLECTING EXPEDITION TO BATANG PADANG. 135 
more probably, it may have been disseminated through the 
body of the rock, and the pale-coloured coarse-grained sand 
and blocks of ore from lodes running through the same forma- 
tion. 
I bought one fine large lump of tin ore besides some smaller 
ones for the Museum, and engaged a Chinese cooly to carry 
them to Tapa. 
The mine which is turning out so well, is that which former- 
ly belonged to the Shanghai Company, and is within a hundred 
yards of the Manager’s old house. We saw a large quantity 
of tin-sand and also a good many slabs of tin, and we were 
informed that the owners estimated the sand then raised would 
yield 70 bharas of tin. 
There seems every reason to suppose that there is a very 
large extent of land equally as good as this piece has turned 
out to be, and that this valley will take many years to work 
out, the area being quite as large as the Larut tin mining 
districts of Tupai, Taiping and Kamunting. 
The only drawback to the place is the transport. At the 
time I was there, the river was so low that boats could not go 
up it, and the road to Tapa was little more than begun. 
In consequence of this, the shops were all shut up, as they 
had nothing left to sell, and the chief Towkay told us he only 
had 30 bags of rice left, and that he had 400 coolies to feed, 
and in a few days if the drought continued he would have to 
begin carrying rice from Tapa, a distance of between 8 and g 
miles over about as vile a track as can well be imagined. The 
usual price of rice is from 33 to 4 gantangs per dollar, but at 
the time I am speaking of, it was not to be had cheaper than 
3 gantangs. 
The opening up of this district depends entirely on the 
completion of the cart-road from Tapa, for at all times the 
Chendariang River is very difficult to navigate, and in times of 
drought it is shut up altogether. It usually takes a cargo boat 
20 days to go from Telok Anson to Chendariang, a distance by 
road (when made) of only twenty-nine miles. The high price 
of provisions, consequent on this expensive transport, is a 
serious tax on the miners, and it speaks a great deal for the 
extreme richness of the land, that any mining can be carried 
