46 QUICKSILVER DEPOSITS OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE. 



metal in a glove. Mr. Kennan considers it almost impossible that this 

 quicksilver can have been obtained by the natives from Europeans, either 

 by design or by accident, and believes that it represents an actual occur- 

 rence. He was not shown any cinnabar. 



China. — Mr. R. Pumpelly discovered in Chinese literature records of 

 the occurrence of quicksilver in ten of the eighteen provinces.' The only 

 province certainly known to contain important deposits is Kwei-Chau. Of 

 this locality Bai'on F. von Richthofen writes as follows:' 



Quicksilver has beeu froai of old the chief commercial product of Kwei Chau. At 

 the begiouiug of the present centurj- it was still among the regular articles of export 

 from Canton. Then it fiiiled and became an article of import, rising gradually in 

 quantity until it reached the figure of over 10,000 piculs [a picul being 133J pounds] 

 in 1831 and 1832. Suddenly the Chinese no longer required the foreign quicksilver, 

 and from 1838 commenced again to export it. This state lasted until about 1849. 

 Since then it has bccouie again a regular article of import, but the quantity required 

 is much less than in former years, ai:d is about 3,000 or 4,000 j)iculs annually. These 

 alternate flood and ebb tides were probably caused by the periodical disturbances iu 

 Kwei-Chau. When the last one commenced, in 1848, the mines were abandoned, and 

 they have not been reopened since. [The minister of the Chinese Empire to the 

 United States informs nie that of late years mining has been resumed.] 



The places where the quicksilver occurs appear to be limited to a well defined belt 

 which extends through the whole proviuce from southwest to northeast [over 300 

 miles]. One of the principal mining districts, and the only one in regard to which I 

 was able to get some information, was Kai-Chau (in Kwei-Yang-Fu). The mines there 

 were scattered over an area of 10 li diameter [about 3J miles] * * * i ^^g m^a- 

 ble to get a clear idea regarding the mode of occurrence of the ore, but it is said to 

 exist iu considerable quantity and to have been difficult to mine only on account of 

 the presence of much water. * * * The mines have the advantage of being near 

 Wang-PingChau ; the metal can therefore conveniently and cheaply be shipped to 

 Hang-Kow [a treaty port]. * * * The number of places at which quicksilver is 

 found and was mined is so great as to make it not improbable that in respect to the 

 quantity of this metal awaiting extraction KweiCliau is far ahead of any other known 

 quicksilver-producing country on the globe. In many places cinnabar is brought to 

 the surface iu plowing the fields. 



Since Baron von Richthofen is a mining geologist of the tirst rank and 



was familiar with the quicksilver deposits of Austria and California, his 



opinion as to the resources of China is entitled to great weight. Kwei-Chau, 



' Geological Ku.sea relics iu China etc. The provinces arc Sheu-Si, Kan-Sii, Shan-Tung, Ngan-Hwiii, 

 Szc-Chuen, Hii-Nan, Kwei-Chau, Cheh-Kiaug, Kwaug-Tung, Kwaug-Si. 



-Letter VII to tlio Shanghai Bo.ard of Trade, 187-2, p. 81. Prof. J. D. Whitney has been kind 

 enough to furnish mo with a copy of that portion of this rare publication bearing on the proviuce of 

 Kwoi-Chan. 



