GEM-STONES 



MAJOR 



Ruby 



GEM-STONES 



Mother-of- 

 pearl. 



D.E.P., 



vi., pt. i., 



584^9. 



Buby. 



Oriental. 



Burma. 



Early Kecords. 



Mining. 



Concession. 



Production. 



Eeturns. 



is that of the Mergui district, Burma, which forms a considerable source of revenue 

 to the Burma Government. ' |Klf |fW 



MOTHER-OF-PEARL (see p. 989) is procured in connection with the Pearl and 

 Chank fisheries of South India. It is carried all over the country, but curiously 

 enough is not worked up to the extent that might be anticipated, though a fairly 

 large trade exists in exporting the shells (Watt, Ind. Art at Delhi, 1903, 206-8). 



[Cf. Renaudot, Ace. Ind. and China by Moham. Trav. in 9th century (Engl. 

 transl.), 1733, 95-8 ; Marco Polo, Travels (ed. Yule), 1871, ii., 267, 274, etc. ; 

 Barbosa, Coasts E. Africa and Malabar, 1516 (ed. Hakl. Soc.), 66, 170 ; Lin- 

 schoten, Voy. E. Ind., 1598 (ed. Hakl. Soc.), 1885, i., 45; 128 ; ii., 133 ; Pyrard, 

 Voy. E. Ind., etc., 1601 (ed. Hakl. Soc.), ii., 143, 239 ; Tavernier, Travels, 1676 

 (ed. Ball), 1889, ii., 107, etc. ; Thevenot, Travels in Levant, Indostan, etc., 1687, 

 pt. iii., 29, 109 ; Milburn, Or. Comm., 1813, i., 357-62; Paulus JEgineta (Adams, 

 Comment.), 1847, iii., 473-4; Burma and Its People (ed. Theobald), 1882, i., 127; 

 Thurston, Pearl and Chank Fisheries, Manar, Madras Oovt. Mus. Bull., i., 1894; 

 Pearl Fishing, Bassein Dist., Agri.Ledg., 1896, No. 36; 1897, No. 1 ; Twynam, 

 Kept. Ceylon Pearl Fishery, 1900, 1-66 ; Donnan, Insp. Pearl Banks, Trop. 

 Agrist., 1901, xxi., 243-5 ; E. im Thurn, Ceylon Pearl Fishery, Jan. 1904, 

 xxiii., 443-5; Feb., 507-9, etc. 



4. Ruby. Ball, Man. Econ. Geol. Ind., iii., 427, etc ; Fritz Noetling, 

 Note on Rept. Namseka Ruby Mine, Mainglon State, in Rec. Geol. Surv. 

 Ind., 1891, xxiv., pt. 2 ; Holland, Rev. Min. Prod. Ind., vi., 584-9 ; also 

 Imp. Gaz., iii., 161. The lal, manak, kembu, ydkut remdni, etc. 



This name is applied by lapidaries and jewellers to two distinct minerals, 

 the True or Oriental Buby and the Spinel-ruby (see opposite). The former is a 

 clear, crystalline form of alumina, coloured by some metallic oxide, chiefly that 

 of chromium or of iron, while the latter is an aluminate of magnesium. In 

 hardness the true ruby is inferior only to the diamond, a fact which affords 

 the simplest test for distinguishing it from spinel, but it is also denser and 

 dichroic. 



Sources. Rubies have been found in certain localities in Southern India, 

 Ceylon, Afghanistan and Badakhshan, but the chief sources both of the Oriental 

 and the spinel ruby are in the mines of Upper Burma. Garcia de Orta (1563, 

 Coll., xliv. ; also in Ball, Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad. (3rd ser.), 1889-91, i., 665) gives some 

 account of rubies, but remarks that under the name of " ruby " a great many 

 stones are placed. Ball, commenting on Garcia, says that definite information 

 of the occurrence of true rubies in India, at least the existence at any time of 

 regular mines, is wanting. Tavernier makes numerous references to the ruby, 

 and Ball in his edition of that work (1889, ii. (app. v.), 465-70) takes the op- 

 portunity to give a full account of the ruby mines of Upper Burma which should 

 be consulted by the reader. 



Mining. At the present day ruby mining in India is confined to the province 

 of Burma, the most important locality being near Mogok. Here the rubies occur 

 in a clayey mass, an alteration product of a coarsely granular marble. According 

 to Mr. Bennet Brough, the methods of mining in Burma are suited to the three 

 conditions of its occurrence, in the limestone, in hill detrital material, and in 

 the alluvial deposits in the valleys. The following account is taken from Holland. 

 " During the period under review the ruby-mining industry in Upper Burma 

 underwent a new and favourable phase, the mineral having become, next to 

 petroleum, the most profitable source of revenue among the Burmese minerals. 

 Various leases were granted in the ruby-bearing area near Nanyaseik in the 

 Myitkyina district, and in the ' stone-tract ' of the Sagyin hills, in Mandalay 

 district, and the results have been most profitless ; but the returns for the Mogok 

 area, where the Burma Ruby Mines Company is paramount, show that the in- 

 dustry has entered a most encouraging phase. The Company was granted the 

 right in 1889 to mine for rubies and to levy royalties from persons working by 

 Native methods, the lease being renewed in 1896 for fourteen years, at a rent 

 of Rs. 3,15,000 a year plus a share of the profits. The result being, however, 

 unsatisfactory from the shareholders' point of view, the rent was reduced in 

 1898 to Rs. 2,00,000, the share of the profits being at the same time raised from 

 20 to 30 per cent. A dividend of 5 per cent, was paid for the first time in 

 1898, when the value of rubies obtained amounted to 57,950. In 1899 the 

 Company obtained rubies to the value of 90,848, and paid a dividend of 12 per 

 cent. ; in this year three unusually valuable stones were found, one of 77 carats 



558 



