366 Mr Crawford''s Account qftJie Mission to Ava. 



" The celebrated sapphire and ruby mines which have always afforded, and 

 still continue to afford, the finest gems of this description in the world, are 

 above five days' journey from Ava, in a direction ESE., and at two places 

 called Mo-gaot and Kyat-pyan. The different varieties of sapphire, both in 

 their crystallized and rough state, and the matrix, or rather gravel, in which 

 they are found, were seen, examined, and collections made. In these mines 

 are found the following gems or stones : the red sapphire or oriental ruby, the 

 oriental sapphire, the white, the yellow, the green, the opalescent, the ame- 

 thyst and girasol sapphires, the spinel ruby, and the common corundum, or 

 adamantine spar, in large quantities. 



" The oriental ruby, perfect in regard to water, colour, and freedom from 

 flaws, is scarce and high-priced even at Ava. The blue sapphire is more com- 

 mon, a;nd cheaper ; one specimen exhibited to us weighed 951 carats, but it 

 was not perfect. The red sapphire neX'^er 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 spe- 

 cimens, and the green sapphire or oriental emerald, which is very rare. The 

 king makes claim to every ruby or sapphire beyond 100 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 

 prescribed value. His Majesty last year got but one large ruby ; this weighed 

 about 140 grains avoirdupois, and was considered a remarkable stone. Sap- 

 phires 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 deco- 

 rating 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 misvsion examined carefully the celebrated Petro« 

 leum 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 37 to 53 fathoms in depth, and are said to yield at an average daily from 

 130 to 185 gallons of the earth- oil. The wells are scattered over an area of 

 . about sixteen square miles. The wells are private property, the owners pay- 

 ing a tax of five pisr 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 readers when they recollect the talent, 

 zeal, industry, and skill of the gentleman at the head of this branch of in- 

 quiry. Dr Wallich has been left behind at Amherst, to complete his inquiry 

 into the resources of the valuable forests of that and the neighbouring dis- 

 tricts. Until this be effected, the full extent of his successful researches can- 

 not be known. The number of species collected by him amounted, when the 

 mission left him at Amherst, to about 16,000, of which 600 and upwards are 



