Rupees.

Hours.

XXXII.

REPORT, &c., FROM CAPT. G. B. TREMENHEERE, TENASSERIM

EXECUTIVE ENGINEER,

DIVISION, TO THE OFFICER IN CHARGE OF
THE OFFICE OF SUPERINTENDING ENGI-
NEER, SOUTH-EASTERN PROVINCES.

WITH INFORMATION CONCERNING THE PRICE OF TIN ORE OF MERGUI, IN REFERENCE TO EXTRACT FROM A DESPATCH FROM THE HON. COURT OF DIRECTORS, DATED 25TH OCTOBER 1843, NO. 20.

Communicated by the Government of India.

["Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal," vol. xiv. pp. 329-332.] SIR,-Agreeably to instructions conveyed in your letter, No. 3018, of 7th February last, I have the honour to subjoin such. information as I have been able to obtain concerning the probable cost of the tin ore of Mergui.

2. With the view of ascertaining its value in the home market, I transmitted, about the period of my first report on the tin of this province, a box of average samples of the ore to a smelting establishment in Cornwall (Messrs. Bolitho and Co.), having extensive connection with the tin mines of that county. In April 1843 Mr. Thomas Bolitho informed me that "the samples of oncewashed ore produces about 70 per cent. of tin, and the twicewashed yields nearly 75 per cent. The metal is very good, being almost free from alloy; some of the samples which have been sent to me from the Malayan Peninsula contain titanium.

"The ore appears to separate from the matrix very easily. "The consumption of tin throughout the world increases so slowly, and the supply at present being more than equal to the demand, there is little inducement to speculate in tin mines.

"The produce of Cornwall is 6,000 tons per annum, and we calculate that the quantity produced at Java, together with what is raised in the Malayan Peninsula, will rather exceed the produce of Cornwall. The average price of tin in Cornwall has been about 725. per cwt., but it is now as low as 56s., which is the present price of the best Straits tin, and tin mines are suffering greatly from the depreciation in the value of their metal.

"It may serve for your guidance to know that at this moment

tin ore of the description of the sample twice washed would fetch in England about £46 per ton."

3. The following calculations of the probable result of a shipment of tin ore, and of the metal, have been obligingly made for me by two mercantile gentlemen of Maulmain. They are based on the lowest prices, which, according to Mr. Bolitho, were obtainable in the market in April 1843, and show a probable profit on tin ore of 75. 8d. per cwt.; but a loss on the shipment of the metal of 12s. 4d. per cwt. in one case, and 4s. 9d. per cwt. in the other. July 1843.-Tin ore from Maulmain purchased at 45 rupees per hundred viss, equal to 365 lbs.

Stout boxes and shipping charges in Maulmain o
Freight home £2 per ton.

Insurance, 2% on 40s.

Commission and London charges, 56 %

Interest commission, 5% on purchase

S3I2I2

I

N N O O O O R

July 1843.-Tin from Maulmain purchased at 77 rupees per hundred viss.

Another calculation of November 1844:

Usual cost of tin in Maulmain, Rs. 77-8 per 365 lbs. on Rs.

Freight to England at £1 10s. per ton.

Duty at Ios.

Shipping charges here and in London

Commission in London at 2%.

4. The assumed rate for the ore at Maulmain, 45 rupees per 365 lbs., would be I think subject to a reduction; but that for the metal is probably the lowest average. It will be observed also that the London price of 56s. per cwt. is taken at a period of great depression in the value of the article, which had averaged 72s. per cwt.; but it would nevertheless appear that to send it to England in the state of clean ore would be by far the safest investment.

5. Many localities in the Mergui province, in which the ore exists abundantly, have been already described and publicly made known; but little or no attention has been given to the subject by merchants of Maulmain. Their business consists principally in timber, piece goods, and hardware, and they have no inclination to embark in mining speculations. A small shipment of ore, being part of about 2 tons collected by convicts and others at the Government expense, was made to England by Messrs. Bilton and Co. of Maulmain; but the quantity was so small that no result has been made known by their home correspondent. At Malewan, on the Pakchan River, at the southern extremity of Tenasserim, between one and two hundred active Chinamen are engaged in collecting the ore in the streams described in my third report of April 8, 1843 ("Journal As. Soc." vol. xii. p. 523). They have been very successful, but there is so little communication with that part of the coast that no accurate statement of the result of their annual labours can be obtained. They convert it into metal, which comes with Tacopah and other tin into the Maulmain market.

6. Other localities equally productive and available to the private speculator have been indicated in former reports, and more are becoming known. A specimen recently obtained by E. O'Riley, Esq., from Henzai, north of Tavoy, is forwarded. It

is said to be plentiful there; but, without multiplying instances, sufficient evidence has been recorded of the existence in the Tenasserim provinces of rich stores of the ore of this useful metal, and it has been also shown that there is no obstacle to its profitable production.

Mining or other operations of this nature, supported by the Government, have generally proved unsuccessful in India; but the time may perhaps arrive when the attention of private capitalists may be turned in this direction.

G. B. TREMENHEERE,

Ex. Engineer, Tenasserim Provinces.

XXXIII.

REMARKS ON THE DIFFERENT SPECIES

OF ORANG-UTAN.

By E. BLYTH, Esq.

["Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal," vol. xxii. pp. 369-82.]

To Mr. W. W. Nicholls, of Sarawak, the Society is indebted for the nearly perfect skeleton of an adult wild Orang-utan, of the peculiar species known to the inhabitants of Borneo, according to Sir James Brooke, by the name Mias Pappan; and which, together with other skulls and skeletons of adult Orangs in our museum, and the exquisite lithographs of others, again, published by Professor Owen, fully bears out the opinion of Sir J. Brooke, expressed in a letter to the Zoological Society, and published in the "Proceedings" of that Society for 1841, p. 55, of the existence of three distinct species of Orang-utan in Borneo.

Professor Owen had previously distinguished his PITHECUS MORIO (Mias kassar of Brooke) from the great Orang then known to him, from specimens to which I had the pleasure of first calling his attention, and which are admirably figured in the "Transactions of the Zoological Society," vol. ii. pl. xxx. to xxxiv. inclusive; and from certain differences observable in skulls of great Orangs compared and figured by him, believed or known respectively to be from Borneo or Sumatra, the same zoologist has indicated what appeared to him to be at least local varieties, one proper to each of those islands, and he applies the names P. ABELII to that