470 SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTION OF PRECIOUS STONES 



Here and there in the white, translucent jadeite arc sometimes patches of a fine cmerald- 

 gi-een colour, the material of which differs in nowise from the ordinary white iiind. Jadeite 

 of this description is much valued and is carved for ring-stones, or the whole of a ring or 

 bracelet may be fashioned out of it in such a way as to display the bright green spots in 

 the most effective manner. 



Fine white jadeite, as well as that spotted with green, is very valuable, even at the 

 quarry. For a block measuring a cubic yard and containing a good deal of green material, 

 1T0,600 was demanded, and .fSOOO was actually offered by a Chinese merchant. A small 

 green stone, large enough for a seal-stone, will fetch between 400 and 500 rupees there, but 

 in Europe will be worth very much less. The value of the whole deposit, which seems 

 inexhaustible, is thus enormous, although of course it must not be supposed that material 

 like that described above is found every day, especially with the primitive methods of 

 quarrying at present employed. 



It may be remarked that though isolated specimens of "jadeite from Bhamo " may 

 have the exceptionally low specific gravity mentioned above, yet, as a general rule, jadeite 

 ' fi'om Upper Burma has the normal specific gravity of 3"3. 



This locality in Burma is the only one known to Europsans at which jadeite 

 indisputably occurs in situ. It is very probable that there are several others in the 

 same country, and in the region extending far into the Chinese province of Yun-nan, 

 some of which may be worked by natives in the manner employed at Ta\vmaw. Moreover, 

 in many of the rivers of these regions it probably exists as pebbles, and is sought for just 

 as in the valley of the Uru river, but at present this is not indisputable. It is certain, 

 however, that dark green and white pebbles, said to have been found in " Tibet in the 

 northern Himalayas," are at present cut at Oberstein on the Rhine. They do not agree in 

 character with those from the valley of the Uru, but more detailed statements as to the 

 locality from whence they are brought are not forthcoming. There are often to be seen in 

 mineral collections specimens labelled jadeite from Tay-hy-fii, or Talifu, in Yun-nan 

 (latitude 26° N. and longitude 100° E. of Greenwich). This, however, is not in reality a 

 locality for the mineral, but merely a stage on the journey from the Burmese deposits, 

 described above, to Pekin ; and on examination such specimens are found to agree in every 

 particular with the jadeite known to have been found in Upper Burma. 



