NEPHRITE: OCCURRENCE IN ASIA 463 



both accidental and wilful damage, is still only one-third smaller than the monolith 

 mentioned above. 



Another occurrence of nephrite in situ has recently (1891) been discovered still further 

 to the east. The locality lies to the north of the Kuen-Lun range, on the way from Kuku- 

 Nor to the Nan-Shan mountains in the Chinese province of Kan-su. It is stated that the 

 nephrite forms a vein in a soft rock, but the nature of this is not mentioned. It is probable 

 that this deposit is the source of the numerous nephrite pebbles found in the streams and 

 rivers of the district by former travellers. There is a brisk trade in nephrite carried on by 

 the inhabitants of the northern slopes of the Nan-Shan range, round the villages of Kan- 

 chu and In-chu, for example ; and in almost all the villages in this region the stone is 

 worked by the natives for the Chinese, while in the town of Su-chu-fu (a little south of 

 latitude 40"^ N.) there are several workshops. The nephrite found in the Nan-Shan 

 mountains is usually cloudy to translucent and of a light-green, milk-white, or sulphur- 

 yellow colour. 



It is not improbable that in the long ranges of the Kuen-Lun and the Nan-Shan there 

 are other places where nephrite occurs in situ, since pebbles have been found by natives in 

 the region ; and the same is true for other parts of China, for example, in Yun-nan. The 

 deposits actually known, however, have furnished not only a large proportion of the stone 

 known as "yu," which is worked in China into the various objects already described, but also 

 that which is applied to other purposes, and which is described as Central Asian nephrite. 



A great many objects fashioned out of nephrite have been found in various parts of 

 Asia, but it is doubtful whether the rough material came in every ease from Eastern 

 Turkestan and the other parts of the Chinese Empire mentioned above. Among other 

 places discoveries have been made in Amur, Japan, East Cape, and the Chukchis peninsula ; 

 while in Syria and Asia Minor articles made of nephrite have been brought to light during 

 the course of Schliemann's excavations. It is probable that the rough material was obtained 

 in every case from some place in the neighbourhood of the spots where these articles are 

 now found. 



Of the occurrences of nephrite in other parts of Asia the first to be mentioned is that 

 in Siberia, in the neighbourhood of Lake Baikal, and near the celebrated Alibert graphite 

 mines worked by Faber, the Bavarian lead-pencil manufacturer. Nephrite and graphite are 

 here very closely associated, and numerous scales of graphite are found embedded in the 

 nephrite. Nothing is known regarding the origin of the latter, though here, as elsewhere, 

 it occurs in a crystalline schist which constitutes the predominating rock of the region. 

 Hitherto the mineral has been found only in blocks together with boulders of other 

 material in the alluvial deposits of the water-courses of the region. These boulders, though 

 not very numerous, are of considerable size, weighing as much as 1000 pounds or more. 

 An immense polished block from this locality, weighing 1156 pounds, is exhibited in the 

 Mineral Gallery of the British Museum of Natural History at South Kensington. The 

 primary deposit is probably situated in the rocky mountainous district of Batugol, in the 

 Sayan range to the west of Lake Baikal. The Soyots, or inhabitants of this district, wear 

 the nephrite as ornaments, the women making necklaces and the men tobacco-boxes of it. 

 Among the water-courses in which boulders of nephrite are found, may be mentioned the 

 Byelaya and Kitoy rivers, both rising in the Sayan mountains and both tributaries on the 

 left bank of the Angara, but the former emptying itself into the Angara further from Lake 

 Baikal than does the latter. Also the Bistraya, a tributary on the right bank of the Irkut 

 river which rises in the Chamar-Daban mountain, the Sludianka flowing northward into 

 Lake Baikal (Fig. 83) and the Onot river. 



