146 COGGIN BROWN : MINES & MINKIIAL litiSOURCES OF YUNNAN. 



dan, belonging to the dominion of the grant khan, and of which 

 the principal city is named Voohang." (This place is believed to 

 have been the modern Yung-ch'ang Fu). The currency of this 

 country is gold by weight, and also the porcelain shells, an ounce 

 of gold is exchanged for five ounces of silver, and a saggio of gold 

 for five saggi of silver ; there being no silver mines in this country 

 but much gold ; and consequently the merchants who import 

 silver obtain a large profit. Both the men and women of this 

 province have the custom of covering their teeth with thin plates 

 of gold, which are fitted with great nicety to the shape of i\w, 

 teeth, and remain on them continually." (Travels of Marco Polo, 

 Dent's Edition, 191-1, p. 219). 



It is unquestionable that there is a certain amount of truth in 

 the statements of the old Venetian as to the occurrence of gold 

 in Yunnan. At the same time it is unfortunate that they have 

 given rise to the exaggerated notions regarding the auriferous 

 riches of Yunnan Which have existed from the middle ages down 

 to the present day. Gold dust has always been an export from 

 Yunnan ; quills of it can be purchased at the present time about 

 the frontier towns of Burma. There is a gold-beating industry 

 in Ta-li Fu and Yunnanese gold leaf probably gilded many of the 

 older pagodas of Burma. Y r et these facts do not warrant the 

 belief that Yunnan is a potential Rand and it will be shown later 

 that there is only one lode mine in the province itself and that 

 most of the production, whatever its total annual amount may 

 be, comes from a multitude of small placer workings, operated 

 spasmodically by the poorer inhabitants of the country along the 

 banks of the great rivers. 



These Chinese authors in their monumental treatise, the " Tien 



n -.. _ , Nan-Kuang-Chang," written about 1850, list 



Ou Ki rone and Hu .■> r n t 1 1 



Kin Sen. the following four gold mines, the total annual 



taxes collected from which, according to Gar- 

 ni er were equal to 1,140 grams of gold, which, as he adds, does 

 not give one high ideas of the gold production of the province 

 (G., p. 230). 



(1) Ma-kou, situated to the south-west of the Ouen mountain 

 on the borders of Yunnan and in the district of Lin-an 

 Fu. As the mine was taxed for each gang of gold 

 washers, it was doubtless a placer deposit. 



