4 



LA TOUCHE : GEOLOGY OF NORTHERN SHAN STATES. 



northern States, and thence to Lashio (H 1). After an attempt to 

 reach the Salween valley by way of the Namyau, he returned to 

 Lashio, travelled through South Hsenwi via Mong Yai (I 3) to the 

 Salween at Mankat (Soo-kat), and descended the river, partly on rafts, to 

 Takaw ferry, whence he returned across the plateau to Hlaingdet 

 in the Sittang valley. A geologically coloured map is attached to 

 his report, but no attempt is made to co-ordinate his observations, 

 which merely record the rocks seen each day along the route. 

 He mentions no fossils, though he speaks of the limestone at Kehsi 

 Mansam, or Ban Zam as he calls the place, where the outcrop is 

 filled with bryozoa and corals. But as the party travelled with 

 elephants, and if possible, carefully avoided any hilly ground, it is 

 not surprising that he found nothing of greater interest than the 

 monotonous limestone of the plateau. It is more strange, how- 

 ever, that he does not allude to the existence of coal, as it is 

 clearly visible in the bank of the river at Man Se (Ban Ze) (H 1) 

 where he crossed the Nam Pawng, in the Namma coal-field, on 

 two occasions ; while he traversed the Lashio field from end to end. 

 The expedition of Mr. C. Barrington Brown to the Buby Mines 

 in 1887 was undertaken for the purpose of 



C. Barrington Brown, , . . , Pi i • iiir 



1887. ascertaining the value of the mines on behali 



of the Secretary of State for India, and his obser- 

 vations were confined to the belt of crystalline rocks adjacent to the 

 road from Thabeikkyin on the Irrawaddy to Mogok (C 1). His report on 

 the mode of occurrence of the rocks met with and on the methods 

 of working the mines, coupled with a masterly description of the 

 petrological types collected and a discussion of the origin of the 

 gems, contributed by Professor J. W. Judd, 1 remains the mos: com- 

 plete account which we possess regarding the character and relation- 

 ships of the Archaean rocks of this region, and I owe the greater 

 part of the description of the crystalline series that I have given 

 in this Memoir to that paper. 



The first connected account of the geology of the Northern 



Shan States is contained in a report by 



Dr. F. Noetling, 1800 _ _ ._ iV . ., , r 



Dr. F. Noetling on the results of an ex- 

 pedition undertaken in 1890 with the primary object of ascertain- 



1 The Rubies of Burma and Associated Minerals : their Mode of Occurrence, Origin, 

 and Metamorphoses. A Contribution to the History of Corundum. Phil. Trans. Eoy. 

 Soc. London, V<>1. 187A, p. 151. 



* Coal-fields in the Northern Shan States ; Records, Geol. Surv. Jnd., Vol. XXIV, Pt. 

 2, p. 09. 



