624 
IHE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [March 1, 1904. 
ders there. Ifc was only occasionally that lower 
down the official ladder one met with some 
narrow minded person who was unable to 
grasp the fact that much of the wealth of 
the Empire was derived from the mining 
industry, and was wholly incapable of 
"thinking Tir perially." He stated that he 
was exceedingly fortunate in having 
A COAL CONCESSION 
under the Deputy-Commissioner of Mergui, 
(a brother-in-law of the Hon, Mr. Crawford, 
Principal Collector of Customs, Ceylon) — who 
takes the keenest interest in mining maiters ; 
but officials varied. When out fishing with a 
Deputy Commissioner of Tavoy, Colonel Po.'s 
asked the latter if he knew what a mineral 
was, fragments of which were lying about ; 
upon the Deputy-Commissioner pleading 
ignorance .and being informed it was plum 
bago, he replied :— " I thought plumbago was 
a pain in the small of the back." ! Some of 
this plumbago Colonel Poss sent to Mr. 
Walter Freudenberg, who had it examined by 
an expert; it was declared to be deficient in 
carbon and therefore of little value. Some of 
it hag, however, been sent to England to 
be reported upon, and there are expectations 
that the plumbago deeper down will be of a 
better quality and commercially valuable. 
THK DEFECT IN COLONIAL CIVIL SERVANTS. 
Colonel. Foss expressed the opinion that 
every Civil Servant destined for Colonial 
service should go through a course of geo- 
logy and mineralogy, and pass through the 
School of Mines, Kensington ; he would be 
of infinitely more value to the State than if 
he spent a similar amount of his time over 
Greek and Latin. District officers, at present, 
may, or probably do, pass by mineral depo 
sits of great commercial value in their daily 
walks abroad. Even the humble Tin, not 
one Civil Servant in 500 could identify 
if he met it in a stream, unless it were 
sailing down in the guise of an empty sardine 
box. Yet a small colony like the Straits 
raised £5,500,000 sterling wor' h of tin during 
the last year, and Colonel Foss holds firmly 
to the belief that there is equally good tin 
near Mereui. 
"It is a wonder to me," said the Colonel, 
"that young men will continue to come out 
to Ceylon, to join the noble army of "cree- 
pers," whereas, with good health, a little 
money, some mining knowledge gained at 
South Kensington, and with a determination 
to succeed, there can be no more fascinat- 
ing life than that led by the prospector, who 
is the first to explore a country. "When the 
heart is young," care sits lightly on his 
shoulders. The shooting is usually undeniaV)le, 
and if the fever is supposed to be the same, 
it is seldom fatal, while quinine, Warburgh's 
Tincture and Mosquito Curtains do much to 
mitigate it. Any day, any minute of the day, 
you may come on a big fortune ; and if not 
today, why there is always the morrow. 
Such a life has infinitely more prizes to 
offer than "creeping" round an estate, 
whittling the Honeysuckle and the Tea. Of 
course, it would not suit every young man ; 
tut there are hundreds of thousands of miles 
of country as yet unexplored, for instance in 
Burma." This country Colonel Foss believes 
will, before many months are over, have a 
special mining market of its own on the 
London Stock Exchange. 
Asked as to who accompanied him 
on his travels, Colonel Foss said he 
had the great good fortune to come across 
an Australian (Mr. Alexander Giltillan) who 
was the most resourceful and cheery com- 
panion possible, and whose Colonial tr.aining 
helped them to pull through many a tight 
place, where a man "who only England 
knew " would have been hung-up. 
TIN DEPOSITS IK BURMA. 
Colonel Foss who has been working N. of 
Mergui with a party of Engineers near 
the Siamese frontier has located large'deposits 
of tin ore fully equal to those in the Straits 
Settlements, which, it is anticipated, will 
largely add to the tin output of the world. 
Coal of excellent quality has also been found 
in the vicinity. Tnis is a matter of universal 
commercial interest and importance. 
A LIGHT RAILWAY. 
Colonel Foss is now on his way home to 
see about having a light railway constructed 
to work the coal, one of the seams being 
25 feet in thickness. Asked for a few words 
of advice to intending prospectors, the Colonel 
said that the substance of some homely 
mottos might help a lame dog over a stile, 
such as ; ' Do unto the other fellow as he 
would like to do to you, and be sure you do 
it first.' 'The early prospector gets the early 
Guinea-pig,' ' When you are an anvil be 
patient; when a hammer, strike !' Never bully 
a bidl and never bare a bear. And finally, 
Gold is what we are all after ; it spells power, 
and place ; we want it for our wives' trinkets, 
or for our teeth ; remember the philosophy in 
Faust : — 
' Nacli Golde drangt— 
Am Golde hangt 
Doch Alles. Acli ! Wir Armen.* 
CEYLON COMPARED TO INDIA AND THE STRAITS. 
Asked what he thought of the Island com 
pared to India or the Straits, Colonel Foss 
remarked that people do not come to Ceylon 
to think ; they come to laze. That, and to be 
pulled about in a rickshaw by a ' naked negi-o 
panting on the line,' watching him grow, as 
each yard he covers a demnition, moist, un- 
pleasant body, and to thank providence that 
we are not as he is, a hewer of wood and a 
drawer of flesh. Our visitor remarked that the 
American, who drives in a haughty manner, 
makes the rickshaw man go, while the Eng- 
lish ' Miss ' so overflows with the milk of 
kindness that she looks as if she would prefer 
to walk rather than be pulled by a panting 
tottering Tamil. The rickshaw man's favourite 
fare appears to be " La Belle Australienne " 
who pays him liberally and does not drive her 
hobby of an hour to death. 
JAVA RUBBER AT HAMBURG. 
GOOD SALES BY THE FIRST PLANTER. 
Mr A Range, of the Deli Muda Estate, who was 
the hrst planter to turn to rubber in Deli, now 
reaps the fruits of his eiiterp'ise. 200 pounds of 
his rubber have been disposed of at Hamburg at 
the rate of 2*56 guilders a pound. There ate 
about 80,000 rubber trees on the estate on the point 
of bearing —Straits Times, 
