729 MINERAL PRODUCTIONS OF THE TENASSERIM PROVINCES. 
order of the commissioner Mr Blundell, with a view to ascertain 
the value of the spot for mining purposes, and I am happy to have 
it in my power to state, that they have been attended with the most 
complete success j more than 8 cwt. of clean ore ready for smelting 
has been collected by a gang of convicts, in which are bulky spe- 
mens of maeled crystals, which in weight and size surpass any• 
thing I have ever seen in Cornwall or in cabinet specimens. 
“ The upper portions of the decomposed matrix of the ore which 
have been exposed to view at the surface, appear but indications of 
a most valuable repository of tin, from which have been extracted 
specimens of great weight and richness, consisting of large maeled 
crystals of tin on quartz, and contain more tin in proportion to the 
bulk than any specimens I have before seen —the largest, which 
measured about 14 inches square by 12 deep was so heavy, as to 
require some exertion to hold it steadily in both hands. The stratum 
of tin soil was ascertained to be upwards of 12 feet thick ! The 
“ Kalian” ore gave on analysis only 0.91 per cent of metallic iron, 
and is believed to be pure from the tungstate of iron and sulphur.” 
Extract from Captain Tremenheere’s report on the tin deposits of 
the Pak-ckan. 
u Malewan and the ti'ibutaries of the P ak-chan. The greatest 
quantity of clean ore obtained from one trough full of soil was 
2,078 grains; the time occupied in each washing 5 to 6 minutes. 
« They (the work men) stated that in the rains one man would 
earn four rupees worth of tin per day. These productive streams 
are however but the index of what is to be found elsewhere, and 
if these localities ever attract the European capitalists, of whose 
notice I believe them well worthy, the proper sphere for the scien¬ 
tific miner should be in the hills themselves. There, if a little cau¬ 
tious investigation were previously made by practical men in search 
of a spot for mining operations, the use of the common horse 
“ whem”, or the most ordinary draining operations, would in my 
opinion, in the course of a very short time, discover veins which it 
would be very profitable to follow out with more complete apparatus . * 
Of the value of such testimony as the foregoing there can be 
but one opinion j coming as it does from an officer of known, 
scientific attainments and well acquainted with the vast mining ope¬ 
rations of his native country. The wonder is, that the Supreme 
Government of India should have allowed these reports to pass 
into oblivion for so long a period, instead of causing them to be 
circulated through the capitalists at home, with offers of the most 
liberal consideration to any parties undertaking their developement. 
* The late Dr Heifer in lus letter to Mr Commissioner Blundell on the tin deposits 
at the head of the Great Tenasserim writes thus “ I have made one excursion to the 
eastward from this place (Tavoy) crossing over the Tenasserim river to the supposed 
boundary : my chief aim was the tin mines, and I am greatly satisfied with them;— 
they are very productive and very extensive; only, because the people ao not under¬ 
stand to work them, and because no European who understands it knows o. them, 
they lie waste; but on a large scale worked with a capital of 30,000 rupees to com¬ 
mence with, one would soon become a “ millionaire.” 
