The Malayan tin district or tin field is beyond all comparison the most extensive and the richest in the world, for it stretches from Tavoy in the 14th dearee of N. latitude to Billiton in the 3d degree S. ratitude, that is, over 17 degrees of latitude and 10 of longitude. The richest locality in the province of Tavoy is nearly opposite the city of Tavoy on the eastern side of the mountains. Mr. Ralph Fitch, who travelled in this part of the world in about the year 1586 or 1587, says—‘ I went from Pegu to Malacca, passing many of the seaports of Pegu, as Martaban, the island of Tavoy, whence all India is supplied with tin, Tenasserim, the island of Junk-Ceylon, and many others.' Tin ore of the Malay Peninsula is stream-ore, and the nearer the mountains is the more abund ant. The ore is imbedded in clay at from 6 to 50 feet below the surface, and is mined by Chinese. In the seven years prior to 1874, the value of the tin exported was upwards of 1-4- million sterling, the produce of thirty mines. The ground being marked out and cleared of vegetation, a square or oblong pit is sunk, varying in depth from 40 to 80 feet, through an alluvial deposit, and the ore extracted by a series of stream works. The stanniferous deposits occur in the form of regular beds, in which the binoxide of tin is associated with coarse sand and decomposed quartz, which are removed in baskets, arranged in heaps on the surface, and exposed to sun and rain for a month or two. The washing is conducted in wooden jutters, through which a stream of water is made to flow, the dirty ore or 'work' thrown into coarse wicker-baskets immersed in water in the wooden trough and shaken about; the metallic ore and finer particles of sand and decomposed quartz are washed through the crevices of the basket into the wooden trough, through which the4.stream of Nvater flows, and is there kept in constant motion by several cooliea with spades, by which means all the dirt and lighter particles of sand are canied off by the stream, and the heavy ore collected iu the heap when the flow of water is stopped, and the metallic ore conveyed to the smelting shed. A funnel-shaped blast-furnace is used, 6 feet high and 4 feet diameter at the mouth. The sides of the trunk and funnel-hole are shaped and backed with clay. The fused matters escape from the cavity and floNv continnally into an exterior reservoir hollowed out for that purpose, from which the liquid metal is ladled out into moulds, shaped in moist sand. The trunk is filled Nvith charcoal made from the gompos tree, and combustion is accelerated by a cylindrical bloNving machine, worked by eight men, of which the nozzle is introduced by an aperture. When the whole mass is brought to a red-heat, the crude ore is sprinkled on the top of the burning embers, and kept constantly fed by successive charges of charcoal and mineral. Each charge consists of :10 pikuls of washed ore, containing from 45 to GO per cent. of tin.
Both gold and tin exist in and about Mount Ophir. The depth of the gold mines is from 70 to 200 feet, and the process of pounding the rock and washing the gold dust is simple and rude. The tin is worked in the lowlands at the depth of a few feet, and some of the ores are so rich that they contain about 80 per cent. of the metal. The whole Malay Peninsula, froin Mergui, Perak, nnd Queda (Kedah) on the north, to the islands of Carimon and Bauca, which were once probably connected with the mainland, in the south, is olio rich deposit of tin, the same as that of Corn wall. It is the ordinary tin-stone or binoxide of tin. It occurs in veins, and also in rounded inasses or grains. It is often beautifully crystal lized, interspersed with decomposing granite, and is generally free from sulphur and arsenic. At the two extremities of the peninsular zone of elevation, Junk-Ceylon and Banca, tiu-sand is diffused in sueli quantity that its collection has never had any other limit than the number of persons employed in it. In Junk-Ceylon and l'hunga, about 13,000 pikuls are annually dug out of the soil. But in Banca, without any improve ment on the usual Chinese modes of excavating, washing, and smelting, the production increased from 23,000 pikuls in 1812, when it was a British possession, to 00,000 pikuls.
The tin ore in the island of Banca is cast into ingots, weighing from 20 to GO lbs. ; the purity of these bars is superior to those from the mines in Malacca. All that is of a superior quality which is brought to China in bars is called Banca tin, while the inferior is known as Straits tin. The former sells for about 117, and the latter for .t14 or 115 pikul.
The tin of Siam is worked in the provinces of Xa.-lang, Xai-ja, Xamphon, Rapri, and Rak Bhrek.
Tin mines of Larut, or, as they are called, Klians, in the 3Ialayan Peninsula, are about 100, averaging 60 or 70 feet in depth, and 700 feet in circumference. There were in 1867, 12,000 Chinese at work, earning five to six dollars monthly. In their superstition, no one is allowed to go near the water-wheel with his shoes on, or with an open umbrella. The mines at Cassang near Malacca, north of Ayer Panas, cover a space of five or six miles. Since the Chinese began to work them in 1844, their produce increased front 146 pikuls to 12,000 pikuls in 18.52.
The Malay and Javanese term for tin, timah, is a word used in the Archipelago as a generic term for both tin and lead, the epithet white or flowery (puteh and sari) being given to tin itself, and that of black (itam) to lead, a metal with which, being entirely a foreign product, the Malayan nations are but little acquainted.— Her.Oeld on the Tin of Banca ; J. of ind. Arch., 1848 ; 1Vinter's Burma ; Morrison's Compendious Description; APCulloch's Com. Dict.; Mason's Tenasserim; Boyle, Prod. Res. of India ; Craw lard's Dictionary ; Mr. Rohde, MSS.