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Paragraphs to be added to Captain G. B. TREMENHEERE'S Report on the Tin of Mergui, communicated to the Asiatic Society, through the Secretariat of the General Department.

Of the existence of tin in considerable quantities there cannot, from the facts above stated, be much question; and from the trial of the produce of one man's labour in a given time, there appears to be sufficient to justify every expectation of a profitable employment of labour on an extensive scale.

The results, however, which are given in detail, can only be considered rough approximations to the probable out-turn of tin, with an establishment properly superintended. Much economy in labour might be effected in collecting the sand and gravel for the washers, but no better mode could, I think, be adopted in separating the tin in the first instance, than by people accustomed to work with the flat conical-shaped troughs before described. The quantity collected would fully repay the employment of men in this operation.

The tin as produced by the washers, should be placed on sloping boards, and water conducted over it from a trough pierced with holes for the purpose, in order to get rid of foreign particles, and it would then, after by being finely pounded, be ready for smelting. Of all metals, tin is in this process the least troublesome after the ore is freed from the earthy and silicious particles, with which in other countries it is often mixed. The crystallized form in which the ore is here found, renders its separation extremely easy, and the whole processes of stamping and dressing, which in England are tedious and expensive operations, can thus be dispensed with. No arsenic or sulphur being mixed with the ore, it need not be roasted before it is placed in the furnace.

It will thus be seen, that the tin of the Mergui province offers no ordinary inducement to the outlay of capital without much of the risk, uncertainty, and large previous outlay usually attending mining adven

tures.

Extracts from a letter to Government on the above subject, from Dr. M'CLELLAND, Secretary to the Coal Committee.

In reply I have the honor, under instructions of the Coal and Mineral Committee, to say, that the specimens of peroxide of tin received from the Tenasserim Provinces, are the usual ore of tin which is worked with much advantage in the Dutch possessions in the Straits, and in the lower parts of the Malay Peninsula, south of the British boundary; but it has not hitherto been supposed to be sufficiently abundant on the Coast, to be profitably worked beyond the tenth degree of north latitude.

The importance of this ore depends entirely upon the quantity in which it occurs, the most profitable repositories are, those in which it is found in the form of crystals, in soft gneiss. It is often, however, profitably obtained from the sands of rivers, when it is called stream-tin ore. The tin occurs as stream ore in all the localities described by Captain Tremenheere, except Kahun, a hill on the right bank of the great Tenasserim, about 11 miles from Mergui, vide paragraphs 16 and 17 of Captain Tremenheere's Report. Here Captain Tremenheere found the ore in its native repository, a friable gneiss rock, similar to that in which it occurs at Banca.

The Committee are of opinion, that the circumstances brought forward by Captain Tremenheere in the 16th and 17th paragraphs of his Report, are such as to render it desirable, that the miner recently employed in Kemaoon, under Captain Drummond, should, if now available, be placed under the orders of Captain Tremenheere, for the purpose of ascertaining the value of the ore at Kahun.*

The miner (Mr. Wilkin) has, I am sorry to learn, preferred returning with the fruits of his experience in Kemaoon to England to accepting this offer.-ED.

E

Note to the Botanico-Agricultural Account of the protected Sikh States, No. 1, September, 1838, p. 764. By M. P. EDGEWORTH, ESQ. C. S.

The plant then described as Reseda Oligandra, has since been published in three plates to Jacquemont's Voyage, t. 25, p. 234, under the name of Oligomeris Glauscescens.

He forms a new genus of the Resedaceæ of it.

The species of the Boragineæ described, I have since ascertained to belong to the genus Nonnea, stated in Endlicher to belong to Europe and Central Asia.

The name of the species of Plantago is Ban-phúla, misprinted Bauphula.

The species of the Acanthaceæ noted as peculiar to the Jhand tract, I have never had an opportunity of examining; the only time I ever saw it, was as a large leafless cone of imbricated bracts, containing ripe seeds, which were covered with silky hair; from its habit I should judge it to be either an Acanthus or a Lepidagathis.

I subsequently found Jacquemont's Cleome Ruta, t. 19, p. 19, apparently a very distinct species; it is very rare near Loodihana, but becomes abundant near Ferozpoor. This last locality is peculiarly distinguished by the abundance of the Bertholetia lanceolata, which covers acres of ground. I was only there during the winter, and had consequently no opportunity of investigating the botany of the neighbouring country. I observed great abundance of a species of Womismia, which I have not found to the east of Loodihana. It is nearly, if not quite, identical with Dr. Wight's W. Capitata from the Peninsula. But I doubt not that in the rainy season, several curious forms might be found in the neighbourhood of Ferozpoor, especially in the extensive Jhand forest lying to the south-east.

At Loodihana in August 1839, I detected a new species of grass, which I cannot refer to any described genus of Chlorideæ. It approaches nearest to Eleusine, but wants the great characteristic of that genus the Aril, and the spikelets are many-flowered. I propose to call it Ochthochloa, from its growing only on Kheras, or Thés, the deserted sites of villages. Ox0oç tumulus, xλon grass, generic character.

1842.] Botanico-Agricultural Account of the protected Sikh States.

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Locustæ unilaterales sessiles, multiflora distichæ ;

Gluma 2. membranaceae persistantis, angustae, carinata inaequales. Paleæ 2. exterior membranacea mucronata, interior hyalina mutica, hodiculæ hyalinæ ovatæ.

Stam 3. styli 2. stigmata plumosa, semen ellipticum, glabrum bimucronulatum.

OCHTHOCLOA dactyloides.

Descriptio.

Repens, stolonibus longis ramosis nodisque glaberrituis (rarius articulis pilis siricui albis circumdatis) plus minus geniculatis; foliis approximatis angustis breviusculis vaginis brevibus, basi pilis longis sparse barbatis, ligula brevi ciliato, membranacea.

Pedunculus erectus solitarius terminalis, spicis 3-5, stellatim digitatis, post anthesin defractis, multifloris; insertione pubescente, rachide undulato glabro asperulo.

Locusta biglumis, 7 floris cum octavo stirili.

Gluma valde inæquales; exteriore paleis quadruplo breviore obtuse truncato, margine scariosa, uninervia carina viridi, serrulata; superiore paleis paulo breviore, multo angustiore, uninervia, carina serrulata.

Paleæ 2: exteriore majore herbacea trinervia; purpurascens cum nervis viridibus nervo medio validiore serrulato; apice mucronulata basi hirtella: superiore subhyalina, carinis duabus eleganter ciliatis. Lodiculae laterales, hyalina, ovatae.

Stamina 3. longa exserta; antheris pallide purpuras centibus utrinque breviter bifidis.

Ovarium turbinatum; stylis separatis breviusculis; stigmatibus breviter plumosis albidis exsertis.

Semen anguste ellipticum utrinque sub-acutum apice reliquiis stylorum bimucronulatum, rugosiusculum uno latere compressiusculum. Habitat in Pagorum disertorum tumulis cum Capparide aphylla. Apud pagum Jassowals prope Lodihana.

On Equations of Condition for a Quadrilateral, common or re-entrant. By Captain R. SHORTREDE, Assistant Surveyor General.

Some years ago when engaged in investigating a general method for disposing fairly of the errors which occur in observing angles, the following properties of the angles of a quadrilateral occurred to me as furnishing equations of condition proper to be used in such cases. Some of the properties were new to me at the time, but it is possible enough, most of them may have been known long ago to others.

In the quadrilateral A B C D with its diago

nals, for the sake of conciseness and uniformi

ty, let A denote the
gle C A D, and As
similarly for the other angles, those on the left
hand side having 1, as their distinctive mark;
those on the right hand having 2, the whole
angle of the figure being distinguished by 3.
When the quadrilateral becomes re-entrant as
in the 2d figure, a similar notation is used as in
the margin.

angle B A C, A2 the an

the angle B A C; and

There are two classes of these equations of condition, of which, one, depending entirely on the summation of the angles, may be termed the class of angular equations: the other depending on the products of the sines of the angles taken in a certain order may be termed sinal* equations.

A

B

23

1

A

B

D

D

In the first figure we have the following angular equation :

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This word I prefer to Sinical, which, though formerly used, is now nearly obsolete: it has the advantage of being shorter, besides, not being liable to be mistaken for another word of similar sound, but of totally different meaning. Moreover the word sine being of apocryphal origin, we need not, for the sake of a fancied analogy, bind ourselves to the use of an inconvenient term.

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