All OUT IvlM'A- lit 



I have now, I think, transcribed enough from Mr. Deane's 

 letter to give an idea of the extent and facilities of the Plus Taller, 

 and will leave him to describe it in detail, as I have reason to hope 

 he will give the public the benefit of the information he has ob- 

 tained during his visit to Perak. 



Next, South of the Plus, comes the Kinta River, separated 

 from the Perak River by a range of hills commonly called the Blanja 

 range. The highest points in this range are from 3,000 to 4,000 

 feet in elevation. iSTone of the coffee planters from Ceylon who have 

 crossed this range have been much pleased with it, thinking the 

 soil too stiff and climate too moist for coffee, whatever it might be 

 for tea or other cultivation. Because coffee planters condemn it, 

 however, it must not be imagined that this range is worthless ; some 

 of the richest deposits of tin in Perak are found along its east- 

 ern base; this deposit of tin, technically called stream tin, is 

 found in two formations ; the upper one, the natural soil of the 

 ground, formed by the denudation of the hills, consists of a light 

 sandy loom in which a considerable proportion of tin sand exists : 

 working this is the mining which the Malays affect; the work is light, 

 it consists in damming up a small stream and then conducting the 

 water by a number of artificial channels, where the soil is washed 

 away, the tin ore. in consequence of its greater weight, being left in 

 the drain; when this has gone on suiiiciently long, the water is 

 turned into another channel, and the ore removed from the bed of 

 the dry one. Below this surface soil, at various depths in different 

 parts of the district, true ore-bearing stratum is reached, "pay dirt" 

 as it is called in Australia ; the depth at which it is found varies from 

 one to eight or nine fathoms, and this is what the Chinese usually 

 mine for. Notwithstanding the present depreciated price of tin, both 

 Malay and Chinese miners are making money, which speaks for 

 itself as to the richness of the deposits ; a stream is just as neces- 

 sary to the Chinese miners at it is to Malays; the latter use the 

 water to remove the soil, and the former pump the water out of 

 their mines with a very ingenious water-wheel ; there are conse- 

 quently large tracts where neither can work, and in these there exists 

 the opening for European enterprize ; a large capital is not required, 

 but a practical knowledge of mining is absolutely necessary ; with 

 both combined large profits would be a certainty ; when the present 

 miners, with their rude appliances and wasteful methods of mining 

 and smelting, can make a good profit, what would not more 



