20 



SECOND YARKAND MISSION. 



green jade, which is characterised hy a thorough absence of cleavage, great toughness, and 

 rather dull vitreous lustre. The hardness is always below 7, generally only equal to that of 

 common felspar, or very little higher, though the polished surface of the stone appears to 

 attain a greater hardness after long exposure to the air. The colour is very variable, from pale to 

 somewhat darker green, approaching that of pure serpentine. The pale-green A r ariety is by 

 far the most common, and is in general use for cups, mouth-pieces for pipes, rings and other 

 articles used as charms and ornaments. I saw veins of the pale green jade amounting in 

 thickness to fully 10 feet ; but it is by no means easy to obtain large pieces of it, the 

 mineral being generally fractured in all directions. Like the crystalline vein-mineral, neither 

 the white nor the green variety of jade is affected by the blowpipe heat, with or without 

 addition of borax or soda. Green jade of a brighter colour and higher translucency is com- 

 paratively rare, and, on that account, no doubt much more valuable. It is usually only 

 found in thin veins of one or a few inches ; and even then it is generally full of flaws. 



Since the expulsion of the Chinese from Yarkand in 1864, the jade quarries in the 

 Karakash valley have become entirely deserted. They must have yielded a considerable por- 

 tion of the jade of commerce ; no doubt the workmen made a good selection on the spot, 

 taking away only the best coloured and largest pieces ; for even now a great number of fair 

 fragments, measuring 12 to 15 inches in diameter, form part of the rubbish thrown away 

 as useless. 



The Balakchi locality is, however, not the only one which yielded jade to the Chinese. 

 There is no reason to doubt the existence of jade along the whole of the Kuenluen range, as 

 far as the mica and hornblendic schists extend. The great obstacle in tracing out the 

 veins, and following them when once discovered, is the large amount of superficial debris 

 and shifting sand which conceal the original rock in situ. However, fragments of jade may 

 be seen among the boulders of almost every stream which comes down from the range. We 

 also observed large fragments of jade near the top of the Sanju pass, which, on its southern 

 side at least, mostly consists of thin-bedded gneiss and hornblendic schist. 



Another rich locality for jade appears to exist somewhere south of Khotan, from whence 

 the largest and best coloured pieces are said to come ; most of them are stated to be obtained 

 as boulders in a river bed, though this seems rather doubtful. Very likely the Chinese 

 worked several quarries south of Khotan, similar to those in the Karakash valley, and most of 

 the jade from this last locality was no doubt brought into Khotan, this being the nearest 

 manufacturing town. A great number of the better polished ornaments, such as rings, &c., 

 sold in the bazar of Yarkand, have the credit of coming from Khotan ; possibly they are 

 made there by Clu'nese workmen, but the art of carving seems to have entirely died away, 

 and indeed it is not to be expected that such strict Mahomedans as the Yarkandees mostly 

 are would eagerly cultivate it. If the Turkistan people will not take the opportunity of 

 profiting by the export of jade, or if no new locality of that mineral is discovered within 

 Chinese territory, the celestial people will feel greatly the want of the article, and good carved 

 specimens of jade will become great rarities. The Chinese seem to have been acquainted 

 with the jade of the Kuenluen mountains for the last two thousand years, for Khotan jade 

 is stated l to be mentioned " by Chinese authors in the time of the dynasty under Wuti 

 (B. C. 14886)." 



1 Yule's Marco Polo, Vol. I, p. 177. (S.) 



