INTRODUCTION. 3 



British and French possessions in Asia ; Yunnan forms the connect- 

 ing link between Burma and the valley of the Yangtze. If India 

 and China are ever to be connected by a railway, the line must 

 pass through Yunnan. The province is not a poor country and 

 although the volume of its external trade is not large, this is more 

 a result of its inaccessibility, mountainous surface and the miser- 

 able condition of its internal communications. It produces a great 

 variety of animal and vegetable products and its mineral industry 

 only needs transport facilities and the application of modern know- 

 ledge to make it of first-rate importance. 



I was deputed to Yunnan in November 1907. In June 1908 

 I returned to Calcutta and in December of the same year I com- 

 menced my second expedition, which lasted until May 1910. My 

 journeys in the province totalled some thousands of miles, embraced 

 the greater part of the country, excluding the eastern portions and 

 Yunnancse Tibet, and often extended into new or comparatively 

 unknown areas. 



In this final report I shall describe the mines and mineral 

 resources as I found them and add such accounts as have been 

 published by other workers. I shall also give the conclusions I 

 have arrived at regarding the future development of the mineral 

 industry. As this depends to a great extent on the transporta- 

 tion problem, the subject of existing and proposed railways must 

 be mentioned. A few notes on non- mineral industries and trade 

 generally will be added, for although these may appear out of place 

 in a technical report of this kind, such information is difficult 

 to obtain elsewhere, and may be of interest to the reader desirous 

 of increasing his knowledge of an important though little known 

 land. 



GENERAL GEOGRAPHY. 



Western Yunnan, which may be regarded as that portion of 

 the province situated between the Burma frontier and the Mekong, 

 is occupied by the north-and south-running ranges which separate 

 the valleys of the upper waters of the Irrawaddy, Salween, Mekong 

 and Upper Yangtze. In the extreme north-western corner of 

 Yunnan the tops of the ranges attain heights of 15,000 to 20,000 

 feet above the sea, and the lowest river valleys lie at about 7,000 

 feet. Further south, in this section, the heights as a rule gradually 

 decrease, and elevations of 5,000 to 7,000 feet prevail m the Mekong 



