468 SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTION OF PRECIOUS STONES 



Prehistoric objects of jadeite have a wide distribution in Europe. They usually have 

 the form of axes, the so-called flat axes, in contradistinction to nephrite axes, which are 

 generally thicker. In Switzerland, jadeite and chloromelanite objects are found together 

 with articles of nephrite in the ancient lake-dwellings. In France, only jadeite and chloro- 

 melanite objects have hitherto been found. In Germany, articles made of jadeite are found 

 all along the course of the Rhine and over the whole of the western portion of the country, 

 namely, in Alsace, Baden, Wijrtemberg, Hesse, Nassau, Rhenish Prussia, and Westphalia 

 (and in Belgium), and as far northward as Hanover and Oldenburg, and eastward as far as 

 Brunswick and Thuringia. These objects are absent in the eastern part of Germany, but 

 reappear in the Austrian Empire, namely, in Upper Austria, Carinthia, Carniola, southern 

 Tyrol, and Dalmatia. Axes and other objects of jadeite are distributed throughout the 

 whole of Italy. In Greece, and in the neighbouring portions of Asia Minor, numerous 

 specimens have been found, Schliemann having found nephrite objects in excavations at 

 Troy. In Egypt, jadeite often served as the material from which scarabs were cut. 



Hitherto jadeite in the rough condition has been found only in small amount in the 

 Swiss and Piedmontese Alps. Among the pebbles derived from the Alps, and which are 

 met with on Lake Neuchatel and at Ouchy, near Lausanne, on Lake Geneva, are some 

 both of nephrite and of jadeite. Jadeite iw situ undoubtedly exists at a few places in the 

 crystalline schists of the Alps themselves, for example, at Monte Viso in the Aosta valley, 

 and at San Marcel, both in Piedmont. These occurrences are only important inasmuch as 

 they show that jadeite does actually occur in situ in Europe. 



In America, articles fashioned out of jadeite and chloromelanite by the ancient 

 inhabitants are found in large numbers in Mexico, in Central America, especially Costa 

 Rica, and in .the northern part of South America, especially in Venezuela. Jadeite is 

 supposed by some to be the stone known to the ancient Mexicans as " chalchihuitl," but 

 other authorities consider this term to signify turquoise. It is probable that the rough 

 material for these objects was obtained near where they are now found, but no trace of a 

 deposit has hitherto been met with. It has been suggested that jadeite is one of the 

 green stones from the Amazon river to which the name amazon-stone was originally 

 given, but this is very uncertain. Rough jadeite, as well as nephrite, is said to occur 

 in Alaska. 



The most important deposits of jadeite are in Asia. Those in Eastern. Turkestan 

 are of minor importance. The mineral here accompanies or occurs in the vicinity of 

 nephrite, and, like this, is interfoliated with amphibole- and pyroxene-schists, but in less 

 abundance. In the nephrite mines at Gulbashen, in the Karakash valley, jadeite has been 

 found intergrown with nephrite. In the Pamir region jadeite occurs in situ in the valley of 

 the Tunga, a tributary on the left bank of the Raskem Daria. The quarries in this deposit 

 are situated about thirty or forty versts from the nephrite quarries in the Kaskem valley, 

 and in latitude about 37° 4<0' N. and longitude 76° E. of Greenwich. The deposit was at 

 one time quarried by the Chinese, but since the latter were driven from Yarkand the 

 quarries have been abandoned. 



The occurrence of jadeite in Upper Burma is much more important. The deposit 

 occupies a limited area on the upper course of the Uru river, and was first thoroughly 

 investigated in 1892 by Dr. F. Noetling of the Geological Survey of India, from whom most 

 of the following particulars are obtained : 



The jadeite mines are situated in the sub-division of Mogoung, about 120 miles from 

 this town, and near the river Uru, a tributary of the Chindwin (Maps, Figs. 54 and 55). 

 The mineral is quarried out of the solid rock ; and is also obtained in the form of rounded 



