462 SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTION OF PRECIOUS STONES 



The deposits of nephrite in this portion of the Chinese Empire are not, however^ 

 limited to the few spots mentioned above, but extend over an area which stretches from the- 

 Rasken Daria eastwar'd over more than 5° of longitude as far as Kiria, in longitude about 

 82" E. of Greenwich, and probably still further. 



Bogdanovitch has recently given a detailed account of the occurrence of nephrite in 

 this region. According to this authority, between Mount Mustagat (longitude about 

 76° E. of Greenwich) and the meridian of Lob-Nor (longitude about 89° E.) there are no 

 less than seven districts where primary deposits of nephrite are known to occur on the 

 northern slopes of the Kuen-Lun and in the immediate neighbourhood of this range. The 

 mineral is for the most part interbedded in pyroxene-rocks. Pebbles of nephrite are to be 

 found in almost all the water-courses of Kashgar, and mining operations are systematically 

 carried on in the valleys of the Jurunkash, Karakash, and the Tisnab. The workings on 

 the first-named river at Kumat below Rhodan are specially well known. They are situated 

 partly in the latest formed deposits of the river, the course of which is often altered to suit 

 the exigences of mining operations, but more especially in the ancient terraces above the 

 river, the detrital material of which belongs to the glacial period. Above Kumat the floor 

 of the valley mentioned above is riddled with pits measuring from 1 to li metres in depth. 

 The Karangu-Tag hills on the Khotan Daria above Kbotan, in longitude about 79^° E. of 

 Greenwich, have been famed since ancient times for their richness in nephrite. The mineral 

 is found here only in secondary deposits and not in its original situation, as at Balyktshi 

 and the places mentioned above. The deposits recently discovered by the above-mentioned 

 traveller at Shanut in the basin of the Tisnab, and at Lishei in the district of the Kiria 

 Daria, are of the same character, as are also those in the famous Mount Mirdshai, or Midai, 

 on the upper reaches of the Asgensal, a tributary of the Yarkand Daria. The primary 

 deposits of nephrite have not been worked since the revolt of the Mahometans and the 

 expulsion of the Chinese ; they are assumed to be exhausted so far as concerns material 

 lying near the surface, and the assumption is probably true. All the primary deposits of 

 nephrite are in high mountain regions, many, indeed, above the limit of perpetual snow. 

 From this situation much has been carried down to the valleys below by the agency of 

 running water and glaciers. 



According to the mode of occurrence and the manner in which it is obtained three 

 classes of rough material are here distinguished: (1) material quarried out of primary 

 deposits; (2) masses carried down from inaccessible heights by the ice of glaciers and still 

 preserving their sharp edges and corners; (3) water- worn boulders and pebbles from the 

 ancient glacial deposits or the later alluvial deposits of the rivers. These boulders and 

 pebbles, having withstood successfully the jolting and grinding and blows of their journey 

 down from the heights, are more likely to be free from internal cracks and fissures than 

 are the other kinds; and for this reason boulders and pebbles of nephrite, apart from 

 considerations of colour and such like, are more valuable than sharp-edged fragments. The 

 -work of quarrying the primary deposits of nephrite is made less arduous by lighting fires 

 on the surface. This practice not only spoils the quality of the mineral, but also causes 

 the mass to break up into fragments of comparatively small size, so that really large blocks 

 are rarely seen. One such rarity is the gigantic monolith of the tomb of Tamerlane in the 

 Gur-Emir mosque at Samarkand. Another was found by Bogdanovitch at the village of 

 Ushaktal, between Karash and Toksun, having been left there in the middle of the 

 eighteenth century on its way to Pekin. This is an irregular block, measuring 

 133-1 centimetres in length, 111-2 in breadth, and 94-6 in thickness. It probably came 

 originally from the mines at Shanut ; and though it has been exposed for a long period to 



