MINERAL PRODUCTIONS OF THE TENASSERIM PROVINCES, 740 
Bengal side of the peninsula, whatever benefit it may eventually prove 
on the gulph of Siam, as it seems to be situated beyond the bound¬ 
ary range of hills.” This notice by the coal committee elicited the 
following observations from Captain McLeod (former assistant to 
the commissioner in charge of the Mergui province) accompanied 
by a sketch map, shewing the position of the coal site in lat. 11 . 51 
N,, long. 99. 36 E., to be on the banks of the Thain-khan or little 
Tenasserim) and consequently on the western watershed of the 
boundary range. 
“That there is no possibility for the Siamese to benefit by this 
coal field, even supposing that it belongs to them, is almost certain, 
for they have no water communication to the place—but the coal 
if ever required, must be transported by a land route, and I presume 
over hills, though of what magnitude I will not venture to surmise. 
That it may not be supposed that I speak from information alone, 
I beg to observe, that I proceeded myself by water within 8 or 9 
miles of the spot, when finding the stream too shallow to admit 
even of small bamboo rafts ascending it, I continued my journey 
by land to the old Siamese town of Thain Khan standing on the 
stream we had quitted, and from thence to the coal site crossing 
many small nullahs on the way, which discharge themselves into 
the Thain Khan (Little Tenasserim) on the banks of which the 
coal is found. This stream appears to come from some distance 
beyond this locality, for our subjects from Mergui annually proceed¬ 
ed up it beyond that spot for the distance of two days journey to 
cut the bastard sandal wood (which is an article of commerce) 
and which they bring down on rafts, when the stream is swollen by 
the rains, without any question from the Siamese. No boundary 
has been fixed of this frontier. At the close of the Burmese war, 
the British considered themselves as having a right either to what 
properly belonged to Pegu or Burmah ; or what those incorporated 
nations held at the time of the capture with us, and was wrested by 
us from them ; or was included within the districts ceded to us. It 
is well known that considerable space intervened between the two 
countries, having become depopulated by the constant aggressions 
of either party 5 and which was left unoccupied from motives of 
safety and convenience. 
“This is not the only point in which incorrect geographical inform¬ 
ation has misled us into wrong conclusions as to defined boundary 
marks. We have to the north and east of Maulmein considered the 
Thoung-yeen river as the line of demarcation, and when this line is 
lost at the source of that river, a range of mountains supplies its 
place, and which is supposed (for I may safely say no part of 
the line from the 14° of latitude downwards has been examined) 
to continue in an unbroken line to the southern extremity of our 
territories. It must be admitted, that this change from a river 
to a range of mountains which, coming from the N. W. runs at 
