Taprobána of the ancient geographers; this Mr. MARSDEN denies, ascribing rather the name to Ceylon, the Serendib of Muhammedan writers, and the Lanca of the Hindus; and affirms, that Sumatra was unknown to them, denouncing the descriptions given by STRABO, POMPONIUS, MELA, PLINY, and PTOLEMY, as obscure and contradictory. Admitting the tradition to be based on truth, it might be conjectured, that the Peninsula and Sumatra, thus united, formed that tract of country known to the Greeks and Romans by the title of "Aurea Chersonesus." This might serve in some measure to explain why so extensive an island, and one so rich in gold and spices, the two great desiderata of ancient, and I may venture to surmise, modern days, should have escaped the notice of ancient geographers.

The quantity of gold dust exported annually from the south-west coast of Sumatra and Achin alone, according to MARSDEN and HAMIL TON, amounts to 26,400 oz. The former states, that there are no fewer than twelve hundred gold mines in the dominions of Menangkabowe alone; a considerable portion of the produce of which (perhaps one-half) never comes into the hands of Europeans.

The gold of the peninsula, on a rough estimate, amounts to 19,800 oz. annually. It is chiefly got at Ulú Pahang, Tringánu, Calántan, Johole, Gominchi, and Jeleye; Reccan, Battang, Moring, and other places at the foot of Mount Ophir.

A small quantity of iron is found in the interior of Quedah, in the peninsula, and also in Sumatra. Siam and Billiton produce this metal in tolerable abundance.

I do not find that silver is produced in any part of the peninsula ; although Perak, from its name, which signifies silver, and which is conjectured by MARSDEN to have been the Apyvoa of PTOLEMY, might have been supposed to have derived its appellation from the presence of this metal.

The tin produced annually in the peninsula, including the adjacent Island of Junk Ceylon, is estimated at 34,600 péculs.

According to CRAWFURD, the tin of Banca, produce of 1817, amounted to 35,000 peculs, or 2,083 tons.

Tin Mines.-The mines are generally excavated on the swampy flats at the base of hills of primitive formation. They average from six to twenty feet in depth, following the streams of ore (Húlúr bíjí), which will sometimes run in a horizontal direction to the distance of three miles, according to the nature of the ground. These excavations are termed Lombongan. The streams vary in diameter from six inches to eighteen and twenty, and consist of a quantity of small heavy granulated portions of a dark hue, and shining with a metallic

lustre, intermixed with a glittering white sand. The excavations made by the Malays, are more superficial than those dug by the Chinese, as they are too lazy to work the streams, which lie deep.

The strata under which the ore is found are commonly, 1st, a black vegetable mould; 2nd, red clay; 3rd, white clay, with white pebbles, apparently decomposed quartz, and 4th, a bed of shining white sand, called Passír bíjí. Under the ore lies a stratum of steatite, called Nápal, or a hard bed of decomposed rock. The native term for the tin ore is Bíjí tímah, literally seeds of tin; when melted, it has the name of Tímah masak. Crystals of quartz and fragments of micaceous schist are sometimes found among the alluvial earth thrown out.

The soil is carried out by the miners in baskets, suspended at the extremities of a stout elastic bambú or penága, which passes across the shoulders. The men are divided into two parties, which work in regular succession, one entering the shaft with emptied baskets, while the other makes its egress, with the filled ones. At Ulu Pondoi, in Naning, and at Jerram Kambing, I am informed, the mines are natural caverns in the rock. The Malays and Jacoons collect the ore by the light of dammer torches.

The ore is taken to a stream, conducted by artificial channels, lined with the bark of trees, to the vicinity of the mines, and stirred about with an iron rake, or a choncole. The water carries off the sand, small pebbles, and earth, leaving the ore and large stones at the bottom, which are afterwards separated by a riddle and the hand. The ore, thus cleared of extraneous substances, is deposited in the koppos, to await the process of smelting.

Smelting or Melanchúr.-The smeltings are carried on at stated periods, twice or thrice a year, according to the quantity of ore collected, and always at night, to avoid the great heat.

The ore and charcoal, (of the Kompas, Kamoui, or other hard woods,) are gradually heaped up, in alternate layers, in a rude furnace of clay, called a Bullowe, with an aperture below, to allow the escape of the fused metal. The fire is urged, and the whole mass brought into a glow by a sort of leathern bellows called Hambúsan, and sometimes by ruder ones, constructed like an air-pump, and made from the hollowed trunk of a strait tree, with a piston, headed by thick folds of paper. These are called Kalubongs.

The Malays for the most part content themselves with the Tropong, which is merely a hollow bambú converted into a sort of blow-pipe, and worked by the mouth.

As the heat increases, the melted metal is received into a hole dug in the ground, called the Telága, or reservoir; and thence, with the assistance of iron ladles, poured into the moulds.

The tin now assumes the shape of the ingots of commerce, of which there are two kinds common in Súngie Ujong, viz. the Támpang and Kepping or Bangka. The former weighs from half a catty to two catties, and the latter, from fifty to sixty catties; one catty is equal to one pound and three-quarters.

The Tampang is generally used by the Malays.

In the furnaces used by the Chinese, 800 lbs. of metal may be produced during the course of a night. Those of the Malays seldom produce more than one-sixth of this quantity.

From 100 parts of the ore, it is calculated, from 65 to 77 of pure metal are produced. The ore of Banca yields 58. That of Junk Ceylon, according to an assay made by Mr. BLAKE, 64.

The water is drained from the mines, if shallow, by means of a channel, leading into a neighbouring stream; but if deep, the Putáram Ayer is had recourse to. This hydraulic machine is, I believe, of Chinese invention. The Rev. Mr. TOMLIN, a zealous missionary, gives the following description of it:

"The apparatus is simple, consisting of a common water wheel, a circular wooden chain about 40 feet in circumference, and a long square box, or trough, through which it runs in ascending. The wheel and chain, 1 think, revolve on a common axis, so that the motion of the former necessarily puts the latter into action. The chain consists of square wooden floats, a foot distant from each other, and strung as it were upon a continuous flexible axis, having a moveable joint between each pair.

"As the float-boards of the chain successively enter the lower part of the box or trough, (immersed in water,) a portion of water is constantly forced up by each, and discharged at the top. At one of the mines we were much struck with the simple but efficient mode of its application. There were three distinct planes or terraces rising above each other. On the middle one was the wheel; the lower was the pit of the mine; from the higher a stream of water fell and turned the wheel, which, putting the whole machine into motion, brought up another stream from the pit; these two streams, from above and below, uniting on the middle plane, run off in a sluice, by which the ore was washed."

Regarding the smelting of tin, in a recent number of Dr. LARDNER'S Cabinet Cyclopædia, (No. 54, pp. 21 and 22,) are the following remarks on the advantages of pit coal over charcoal: "Authorities are not agreed as to the time when pit coal first began to be substituted in the reverberatory smelting houses (of Cornwall) for wood or charcoal, though this is generally supposed to have been about 1680.

"In the smelting of this (tin), as of other metals, the application of this fuel has been productive of immense advantages; and such is the perfection to which our metallurgic operations have been carried since the economical introduction of this cheap and plentiful fuel, that the regulations of our custom-house alone prevented the carrying a scheme set on foot some years ago, for the importing of the tin ore from the eastern mines, for the purpose of being smelted in this country, and afterwards re-exported."

It would appear to have escaped the observation of the author of this article, that the enormous forests which thickly cover the whole of the Malayan peninsula, and the Island of Banca, under the very shade of which the miners may be said to work, furnish on the spot a cheaper and more economical fuel than the coal pits of Newcastle or Whitehaven do to the miners of Cornwall, at the sole expence of the labor of felling them; setting aside the loss of time, the expence of importation and exportation, and disinclination of the natives to such a scheme. Moreover, according to Mr. CRAWFURD, the cost of producing a cwt. of Banca tin is but 22s. 8d., whereas that of Cornwall amounts to 64s. 7d. The cost of producing a cwt. of the metal in Súngie Ujong is estimated by an intelligent native at 23s. The immense natural obstacles in Cornwall, only to be surmounted by the most powerful steam engines, and the unremitting application of all the means human ingenuity can devise, together with the high price of labor, are, however, the principal causes in the enhancement of the cost of production in England.

The time perhaps is not far distant when like ingenuity and similar means will be applied to the unlocking of the hitherto partially developed resources of the East.

According to the best native information, the annual produce of the peninsula, before the late disturbances in the tin countries, was as

The discovery of tin in the peninsula cannot be traced, but it is assuredly of ancient date. Part of Perak is said to be the Temála, or land of tin, of PTOLEMY, and Cálung, (a name signifying tin in Malay,) to be the Malaiou Colon of the same author, and the MalayaCulam of the Hindus.

The tin mines of Banca are of modern origin, being accidentally discovered, Mr. MARSDEN tells us, in 1710, by the burning of a house; the trade of the peninsula suffered considerably in consequence.

According to Mr. CRAWFURD, (as before stated,) the tin of Banca, produce of 1817, amounted to 35,000 peculs, or 20831⁄2 tons, equal to half the produce of England. But under the management of the Dutch, I am informed, it now scarcely produces half that quantity. The price of Banca tin is from 16 to 16 dollars per pecul 133 lbs., and of Straits tin, (chiefly from the peninsula,) from 14 to 15. British block tin, in 1832, was selling at £3 12s. 6d. per cwt.

In consequence of a supposed adulteration of Straits' tin, some specimens of ingots of this metal, rejected at Canton, were sent from Singapore to be assayed at Calcutta in 1831. This was done at the Calcutta assay office, which pronounced the specimens to be of good quality, and perfectly good in a mercantile sense. "Great Britain, (according to Dr. LARDNER's work already quoted,) notwithstanding the productiveness of her own mines, imports upwards of 700 tons per annum of oriental, or, as it is more commonly called, Banca tin, from the name of one of the Malay islands, where it is chiefly obtained. The Malay countries are reckoned the richest depositaries of this metal in the world; and from them, China, Hindostan, and many European markets are chiefly supplied. England exports annually about 2,000 tons of tin, including 400 or 500 tons of that received from abroad." Her produce varies from 3 to upwards of 4000 tons annually.

Revenue. Besides the Kapála digang, and other sources of revenue previously mentioned, as enjoyed in common by the Panghúlú Delantye of the interior states, the Panghúlú or Klána of Súngie Ujong, and the Rája adhi Raja have the privilege of purchasing, at every smelting, from each bongsal, three bhars, equal to nine peculs, or nine hundred catties of tin, at six dollars per bhar less than the market price, and exact a duty of six dollars a month for each mine dug on their own lands.

The Dattu Muda of Lingie levies also a dollar per bhar, on tin passing down the river.

The Kapála dágang is a sort of poll tax on slaves imported into * See GLEANINGS IN SCIENCE, Vol. III.