Observations of the late Mission to Ava, 9.1 



feet. The red sapphire oever approached this magnitude. 

 The other varieties are all rare, and not much esteemed by 

 the Burmans, with the exception of the girasol sapphire, of 

 which we saw two or three very fine specimens, and the green 

 sapphire or oriental emerald, which is very rare. The king 

 makes claim to every ruby or sapphire beyond a hundred 

 ticals value, but the claim is one not easy to enforce. The 

 miners, to avoid this sage law, break the stones when they 

 find them, so that each fragment may not exceed the pre- 

 scribed value. His majesty last year got but one large ruby. 

 This weighed about one hundred and forty grains avoirdupois, 

 and was considered a remarkable stone. Sapphires and rubies 

 form a considerable article of the exports of the Chinese, who ' 

 are the cleverest people in the world in evading the absurd fiscal 

 laws made by themselves and others. The use they put them to 

 is that of decorating the caps of their mandarins or nobility. 

 Precious serpentine is another product of the Burman empire, 

 which the Chinese export to a larger value. 



The gentlemen of the mission examined carefully the cele- 

 brated petroleum wells, near which they remained for eight 

 days, owing to the accident of the steam vessel taking the 

 ground in their vicinity. Some of the wells are from thirty- 

 seven to fifty-three fathoms in depth, and are said to yield at 

 an average daily from one hundred and thirty to one hundred 

 and eighty-five gallons of the earth oil. The wells are scat- 

 tered over an area of about sixteen square miles. The wells 

 are private property, the owners paying a tax of five per 

 cent, of the produce to the state. 



This commodity is almost universally used by the Burmans 

 as lamp oil. Its price on the spot does not, on an average, 

 exceed from 5d. to 7|d. per cwt. The other useful mineral 

 or saline productions of the Burman empire are coal, saltpetre, 

 soda, and culinary salt. One of the lakes affording the latter, 

 which is within six or seven miles of the capital, was examined 

 by the gentlemen of the mission. 



The success of the mission has been the completest in the , 

 department of botany. This will readily occur to our read- 

 ers, when they recollect the talent, zeal, industry, and skill of 

 the gentleman at the head of this branch of inquiry. Dr 

 Wallich has been left behind at Amherst to complete his in- 



