54 



On the Tin of the Province of Mergui. 



for the purpose, in order to get rid of foreign particles, and it -would 

 then, after by being finely pounded, be ready for smelting. Of all 

 metals, tin is in this process the least troublesome after the ore is 

 freed from the earthy and silicious particles with which, in other 

 countries, it is often mixed. The crystallized form in w T hich the 

 ore is here found, renders its separation extremely easy, and the 

 whole processes of stamping and dressing, which in England are te- 

 dious and expensive operations, can thus be dispensed with. No 

 arsenic or sulphur being mixed with the ore, it need not be roasted 

 before it is placed in the furnace. 



25. It will thus be seen, that the tin of the Mergui province offers 

 no ordinary inducement to the outlay of capital, without much of 

 the risk, uncertainty, and large previous outlay usually attending 

 mining adventures. 



26. The location of the coal mine on the Great Tenasserim river, 

 has given rise to much additional cultivation along the banks of that 

 river, where there are many Kareen villages, from which parties 

 on the Thengdan could be supplied. Fruit trees, not indigenous to 

 the place, and other traces of a considerable population having once 

 occupied its banks, are observable on this river. The banks of the 

 Little Tenasserim are thinly occupied by Siamese villages. The 

 country in this direction, except near the banks of the river, is utter- 

 ly unpeopled, and appears always to have been so. 



27. Communication by water from the Thakiet to the Thabaw- 

 liek tin ground is not open in the dry season, but the distance by 

 land is short. The produce of two lines of country, that of the vici- 

 nity of the Great and Little Tenasserim river passes the town of Te- 

 nasserim at the junction of these rivers, only eleven miles from the 

 Thakiet, and no difficulty in procuring subsistence for working par- 

 ties on the Thabawliek need be apprehended. 



Although stream ore is worked with advantage in Cornwall, we believe it is Mine-tin 

 ore that is chiefly worked at Banka, and other parts of the Dutch possessions, in the Straits, 

 with so much advantage. As mine ore occurs under favourable circumstances at Kalian, 

 a hill described by Captain Tremenheere on the right bank of the Great Tenasserim, only 

 eleven miles from Mergui, the Coal and Mineral Committee, to which this report has 

 been referred by the Government, were of opinion that the ore might be worked in that 

 locality, with every prospect of success. — Ed. 



