Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstrait121878roya).pdf/57

 indubitably large deposits of this mineral in Sarawak, will shortly be re-opened on a scale not heretofore attempted in connexion with mining operations in this part of the East.

As the evidence stands, therefore, Sarawak cannot be looked upon as a mineral-producing country. What discoveries may be made in the future it is of course impossible to foretell; but it is not unreasonable to anticipate fresh discoveries of Antimony and Cinnabar; and, judging from the geological analogies existing between the N. W. Coast of Borneo, Banka, and the Malay Peninsula, of ores of tin and lead also. Such discoveries would be of much importance to the material welfare of Sarawak, and if made in any of the Sea-Dyak districts would be doubly beneficial. It is a regrettable circumstance that the Borneo Company—who hold a monopoly of all minerals in Sarawak, with the exceptions I believe, of coal, gold, and precious stones— have never instituted any system of prospecting the country beyond the limits of Sarawak Proper. It is true that their officers have now and again been despatched to look up traces of minerals, and have spent a few days in so doing, when weeks would have been insufficient for the fulfilment of the object in view. A superficial examination of a district in which strong traces of a mineral have been observed is, if unsucessful, worse than no examination at all, for it operates as a preventive against more thorough search being undertaken at a future day. The exploration for minerals in an open country is a sufficiently protracted and laborious affair—how much more so in a land like Borneo, densely clothed with a luxuriant vegetation.

In conclusion, whatever minerals may be awaiting discovery in the Territory, their importance can only be relative in comparison with that of the coal fields of N. W. Borneo. If these coal seams are available as a source of good average steaming fuel— and the partial statement of evidence which I have given above is most favourable to the idea that they are so available,—the probability is that they will be worked in Sarawak; and in that case their proximity to the great commercial emporium, and perhaps future naval arsenal of Singapore, will invest with a new interest this country, which, although playing a useful part in the gradual civilization of Borneo, and in the protection of trade on its coasts, has not otherwise any strong claims at present on the attention of the outside world.