ON THE PATANI. 141 



with a socket, in which a strong shaft of wood is fixed, it is very- 

 heavy and the miners sim ply lift it vertically and then plunge it 

 into the rock or earth releasing a considerable quantity at a time, 

 and this, falling into the stream which is made to deviate so as to 

 follow the miners, becomes disintegrated and is washed down the 

 hill, to a lower platform where a good deal of the tin remains 

 whilst the debris continues its course down the hill and passes 

 through sluice boxes where any remaining mineral is retained. 

 The existence of these deposits of tin often very rich on the sum- 

 mit of hills which are in many instances isolated rising up all round 

 above the ground immediately surrounding them, is a phenomenon 

 somewhat perplexing, and must at once attract the attention of the 

 observer, but what is still more perplexing is that these deposits of 

 tin will be found mixed or coexistent with deposits of carbonate of 

 lead as in Datoh Chew Beng's mine at Goa Tumbus marked on the 

 sketch map. On this hill there are distinct deposits of tin of fine 

 quality alternating with deposits of carbonate of lead. Space will 

 not admit of my going fully in this paper into the mineral pheno- 

 mena of the country, but I may state that the general result of my 

 observations through Patani was that the chief, if not the only. 

 factor in the distribution of the alluvial minerals has been the 

 ocean, and that river denudation has not in its most recent phase 

 affected the present contour of the country or the deposit of mi- 

 neral except where existing in the rivers to any appreciable extent. 



It may be that the deposits of tin are entirely prehistoric to the 

 formation of the limestones and, therefore, to the subsequent 

 changes of the surface, and it is possible that a stanniferous hill like 

 Datoh Chew Beng's may, when beneath the sea, have been subject 

 to the action of under-currents and swirls which have eroded the 

 surface without carrying away the mineral, and being, as it is, in 

 close proximity to lead-bearing limestone, the carbonate of lead, 

 which is lighter than galena, may have been carried by such cur- 

 rents to the site of the tin deposits ; carried it must have been some- 

 how or other, for there it is, but no river could have brought it. 



A.bove Banisita, there are some stiff rapids and the river passes 

 through mountain fastnesses presenting some of the wildest and 

 most attractive scenery that the mind can conceive of ; lofty moun- 



