32i 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVI. No. 410 



The principal of these woods are the following. The sangle is a 

 yellowish-brown wood, which gets darker with time. It is a rare 

 and very dear wood, not decaying under water, very heavy, and 

 susceptible of a good polish. It is frequently employed in the con- 

 struction of the better class of junks, and is sold in the markets in 

 logs sawa through the middle. This is done because the pur- 

 chaser, paying a high price for this particular description of wood, 

 insists upon seeing the condition of it throughout. This wood 

 has no sap, and it frequently attains a height of 18 metres. The 

 ye is a rose-colored wood, scented, and capable of a good polish. 

 It is light, and is not attacked by ants. There are two varieties 

 of this wood, — the ye-bal, or white; and the ye van, or yellow. 

 The ven is a dark-yellow wood, becoming brown with age. It is 

 light, and is fit for ordinary carpenters' work. The gam is a 

 yellowish-white wood, heavy, and with long fibres. It is sold in 

 planks from 13 to 15 metres long, and is used for framework and 

 in the construction of junks. The tio is a red, hard, and heavy 

 wood, with a coarse grain; and the tine is a purple -colored wood, 

 tender, and with very fine grain. The latter, says M. Thomfi, 

 might well be used for cabinet-making. The gdi is a red colored 

 wood, and the tree attains a height of from 10 to 13 metres. It 

 is useful in carpenters' and cabinet-makers' work. The hop is a 

 white wood, extremely light (very much resembling cork), polishes 

 ■well, and would be useful to joiners. The meueque is a light, 

 white wood, used for making sabots for the Annamites. The goo 

 is a very fine, light, and well-veined wood, becoming black with 

 age, scarce in Nghe-An, but abundant in Ha-tinh. It is used 

 for inlaying work. The oak, thus named because it resembles the 

 European oak, is a heavy wood of mahogany color, has a good 

 polish, and is used in cabinet-work. 



Among the other principal woods in which a considerable trade 

 is carried on, may be mentioned the bamboo, rattans, cunao, vang 

 sao (a parasite plant used in Chinese medicine, and very expen- 

 sive), and cinnamon. From the clearings to the banks of the 

 river, the logs and planks of wood are dragged by buffaloes. 

 Rafts are then formed, which descend the stream from Ngbe-An 

 and Ha-tinh in all seasons except when the waters are exception- 

 ally swollen. During the dry season the streams have always a 

 sufficient amount of water to allow the rafts to go down to the 

 «ea The province of Nghe is one of the /ichest in Annam from 

 a forest point of view; and the Song-Ca and Song-Cong, streams 

 which traverse the forest region, form excellent means of trans- 

 port for articles so heavy and cumbersome as timber. 



GEM-MHSflNG IN SI AM. 



The region in which gems, including rubies and sapphires, have 

 for the past ten years been found, lies situated on the western side 

 of the Cambodian peninsula, about 340 miles south-east of Bang- 

 kok, and covers approximately an area of 100 square miles. The 

 centre of that district is Chantabun, a seaport with a good harbor, 

 connected with Bangkok by a line of three small steamers running 

 at regular intervals. It is stated in a recent report to the foreign 

 ■office that within three hours' walk from Bangkok, to the north- 

 west, is Ban' Kacha, where rubies of a very inferior kind are still 

 sought after by the local inhabitants, both Siamese and Chinese. 

 Tongsoos, or natives of Pegu, and Burmese, do not work there. 

 Again, twelve hours distant from Chantabun are the mines of 

 Miiang Krung, with a mining population of about 100 in all, 

 mostly Tongsoos, with a few native Siamese and Chinese. Two 

 days' journey from Chantabun, in a southerly direction, is the 

 district of Krat, with mines from which rubies are extracted, and 

 but few sapphires. The Tongsoo workers there number about 

 3,000. On the eastern side of tlie hill range, and three days' 

 journey due east from Chantabun, midway between that town 

 and Battambong, are the Phailin mines, the most extensive and 

 most frequented of all. Here there are between 4,000 and 5,000 

 gem-seekers. Rubies and sapphires are both found, the latter 

 being moi-e abundant. The rubies at these diggings, although 

 more rarely met with, are said to be of higher value than those 

 discovered at other places in Siam. A stream which rises in the 

 hiU ranges passes through the neighborhood of the mines on its 

 way to the Thale Sap and the Cambodia River. All three of these 



localities — Krung, Krat, and Phailin — have been, or shortly wili 

 be, conceded on mining leases. 



The method of obtaining the precious stones, as described in the 

 Journal of the Society of Arts, London, is identical at all the dig- 

 gings in the region of Bangkok, and is as follows: The intending 

 digger, on entering the district, pays three ticals (5s. 3d ) to the 

 head man, — a Burmese British subject appointed by the British 

 Legation, and responsible to the governors of Battambong and 

 Chantabun, according as the fees received are derived from the 

 Phailin or Krat mines. Beyond this tax there is no further fee 

 exacted. The Siamese Government claim no right to pre-empt 

 gems found, or to purchase at market value all stones above a 

 certain carat weight, as was the case in Burmah. The' Tongsoo 

 digger's first object is to discover a layer of soft, yellowish sand, 

 in which both rubies and sapphires are deposited. This stratum 

 lies at depths varying from a few inches to twenty feet on a bed 

 of subsoil, on which no precious stones are found. A pit is dug 

 until this corundum is exhausted; and the soil removed is then 

 taken to a neighboring canal or stream, one of which runs in the 

 proximity of the mines both at Phaihn and Krat, where it is 

 mixed with water, and passed through an ordinary hand-sieve. 

 In his search for this peculiar alluvial deposit, which is generally 

 free from any admixture of clayey earth, the digger has often to 

 penetrate into the jungle that grows thickly around, combining 

 the work of clearing with the occupation of gem-digging. 



The Tongsoos do not appear to form themselves into companies 

 for mutual assistance or division of profits. They work principally 

 in twos and threes; and, if chance lead them to discover a gem of 

 any value, tbey either undertake a sea- voyage to Rangoon or Cal- 

 cutta for the purpose of obtaining a good price for it themselves 

 with the dealers in precious stones at these places, or consign 

 their acquisitions to an agent, while they themselves continue to 

 search for more. A process of migration is continually going on 

 among the Tongsoos of the different mines, the workers passing 

 fron) one to the other, according to the reputation of a particular 

 mine at certain periods. 



No artificial or mechanical processes for the washing of the 

 soil have as yet been introduced, nor have gems been discovered 

 in fissure veins of soft material embedded in crevices of hard rock 

 or in crystal form. Rubies and sapphires are found at all the 

 diggings, often deposited side by side in the same layer or stratum 

 of sand. The ruby of "pigeons' blood " color is rarely, if ever, 

 met with. The color of the Siam ruby is usually light red of a 

 dull hue. The sapphire is of a dark, dull blue, without any of 

 the silken gloss which is the distinctive mark of the Burmah and 

 Ceylon stone. Stones resembling garnets rather than rubies are 

 found in the dried beds of water courses at Raheng, two hundred 

 miles north of Bangkok; and there is every reason to believe that 

 rubies also equal, if not superior, to those discovered in the south- 

 east, exist throughout the Raheng district. Those hitherto ob- 

 tained are the result merely of surface scratchings by the Tong- 

 soo seekers. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The encouragement received in New York since April 1 by 

 George L. English & Co., mineralogists, has been such as to lead 

 them to the decision to concentrate their entire business in the 

 metropolis. It is their purpose, therefore, to transfer their Phila- 

 delphia stock to New York on Jan. 1, 1891. For the present they 

 will remain at 739 and 741 Broadway, where, with new fixtures, 

 a greatly enlarged stock, and an increased corps of assistants, they 

 hope to merit and receive a growing patronage. 



— The production of kirschwasser in Switzerlind is carried on 

 in the cantons that produce the best cherries; namely, Basle-Cam- 

 pagne, Bern, Aargau, Freyburg. Grisons, St. Gall, Lucerne, Upper 

 TJnterwalden, Soleuie, Schwytz, Valais, Vaud, Zug. and Zurich; 

 that is to say, in fourteen cantons out of twenty-two. The United 

 States consul at Lucerne says that the principal distilleries are in 

 the following cantons: Basle, Lucerne, Schwytz, and Zug. The 

 others are small concerns, consisting of one, two, or at most three, 

 stills. The manufacture of kirschwasser is also carried on to a 

 great extent by the farmers. For the distillation of kirschwasser, 



