73,5 MINERAL PRODUCTIONS OF THE TENASSERIM PROVINCES. 
8. The Toung-byouk river passes through extensive deposits 
of rich “ glance” and in its bed are found’large quantities of cubical 
ore, pyrites, and concretionary nodules of clay iron stone. 
The foregoing are the principal known localities of the ores of 
iron; besides those enumerated however other sites less accessible are 
abundant; and in all the rivers flowing through the upper beds of 
the secondary foundations, as well as in the schistose rocks, pyrites 
and oxydulated iron are present in large quantities, the latter is also 
found in the sands of the beach, having been deposited there by the 
disintegration of the gneiss, and mica, and chlorite schists of the 
littoral formations. 
With all this tempting display of the richness of these provinces 
in an article of such universal utility, it must be confessed that the 
prospects of profitable returns to any undertaking for the product¬ 
ion of the metal are obscure and uninviting ; facilities are not want¬ 
ing at the various localities mentioned which would serve to gild 
the bait, of speculation, and which in the glowing license of a des¬ 
criptive prospectus, might charm the capitalist to an investment of 
his funds, but opposed to these are the weighty considerations which 
follow. 
1. The large expense necessary to the formation of an effective 
establishment for the reduction of the ores of iron, would be doubled 
in a country possessing none of the resources to aid the undertak¬ 
ing ; all of which must be imported from home. 
2. The paucity of inhabitants and consequent high rate of labor 
for services, which for the first 2 or 3 years would of necessity be 
experimental and probationary. 
3. The cost of material (coke) for mixing with the charcoal 
as the reducing agent, and lastly, with all this accomplished, and 
the work proceeding smoothly on its course, would the material so 
produced compete in the markets of the East with that imported 
from home, or with the article produced at the “Porto Novo” works 
on the Madras coast ? I think not, and moreover that the scale of 
success which has attended that undertaking to supply India with 
its own native material, opght to be considered a criterion for the 
guidance of all new operations of the same kind possessing even 
more advantages than that establishment. 
Lead. 
The ore _ of this metal accompanies the metalliferous limestone 
ranges which in separated masses, are found throughout the Pro¬ 
vinces their principal character is that of the “ sulphured’ or 
“galena” ore in every variety of crystallization: obtained specimens 
shew the following.—In “cube” crystals imbedded in and dissemina¬ 
ted throughout a matrix of highly indurated grey limestone. 
In “ lamellar” masses easily separated, in the same matrix as the 
foregoing. “ Granular” and “ compact” with brilliant metallic 
surface and of varying spec, grav.also regular “octohedron ore,” 
