July i, 1889.] THF. TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
3 
morial has been the most famous gem-producing 
country on the faoe of the globe. The sapphires 
of Ceylon are thus described by Mr. E. W. Streeter: — 
" Sapphires are azure blue, indigo, dark red colour, 
violet blue, poppy red, cochineal, carmine, rose 
red to rose white, milk white, yellow white, French 
white, lemon colour, and green. As a rule the 
colours are pure and high. Sometimes a crystal 
is found exhibiting a variety of colours. The asteria 
or star sapphire shows under the microscope 
thread like shafts directed towards the faces of 
the six-sided prisms, and it is the reflection of 
light from these which give to the stone its star- 
like brilliancy. The blue variety is called sapphire 
in its limited sense. The red variety is the ruby.'' 
The above would seem sufficient to attract the 
attention of would-be subscribers to a venture in 
gemming mines, but they are in reality hardly a 
moiety of the riches which our far-famed island 
offers in profusion to those who should be 
wise enough to search for them. The list of Cey- 
lon gems is long and complicated : — rubies, sap- 
phires, corundum and diamond spar, pleonaste, 
catseye, star stones, garnet, carbuncle, jacinth, 
cinnamon stone, topaz, <fec. 
Here is wealth of gems indeed for picking up, 
wealth in abundance lying hidden almost on the 
surface of the ground, wealth of gems to be had — 
so to speak — for the asking, without difficulty 
and without danger, and in a civilized country 
that has been settled under British rule for close 
upon a oentury. Why then should the capitalists 
of Europe go to Burma and leave Ceylon gems 
to " blush unseen " ? Even now why not a Ceylon 
Gem Mining Company as well as a Burma Ruby 
Mining Company. It surely needs but little in 
the way of demonstration to prove that such a 
company is certain to be a very handsome in- 
vestment. The preliminary expenses would be very 
light compared with those that must of necessity 
be incurred in Burma, and the difficulties so 
serious in the latter country would be a mere 
trifle as regards Ceylon. In the first place machi- 
nery and supplies could be carried in perfect safety, 
and the works initiated in any part of Ceylon 
without fear of attack. Whereas in the Burma 
raby mine district every man walks in fear and 
trembling, literally carrying his life in his hand. 
Neither can he lie down to sleep with the assu- 
rance that his house will not be burnt over his 
head during the night and his life endangered 
when endeavoring to escape. Such danger need 
not even be dreamt of in this peaceful country. 
Again, as regards the difficulty of transport, the 
route in Burma is either 800 miles— eight hun- 
dred miles 1 — by water and then one hundred 
more across a dried up unhealthy country to the 
foot of the hills, and from thence up steep, pre- 
cipitous, broken tracks to the enormous elevation of 
over 4,000 feet. Or it must run 400 miles ! by a 
railway (at present very imperfect and certain for 
some years to come to be damaged by floods in the 
rainy season), then one hundred miles by water, 
and the rest of the distance as described above, to 
the top of the hills or at any rate half-way up 
those that reach 7,000 to 8,000 feet. Now let us 
see what would be done in Oeylon. Take Eatna- 
pura — the oity of rubies in the native tongue — as at 
present the centre of the gemming operations. We 
have about 60 miles only of aood cart road — and 
that is all, or we may take the alternate route via 
Kalutara, where we have 35 miles of railway and 
say 70 of good water carriage — and we are at Ratna- 
pura. The transport of material and supplies is 
thus plainly shown in Ceylon to be a mere fraction 
of what it is in Burma ; and as for further pro- 
gress, the island possesses the finest roads of any 
hill country in the world, those from Ratnapura 
reaching to Pelmadulla and Balangoda on the one 
side, to Rakwana and Morowak Korale on the south, 
and Nambapana and the sea on the west, — the whole 
of the intermediate country being one vast bed of 
gem-producing soil. Nor need we rest content with 
even this enormous sketch of country, for some of 
the finest stones have been found in the southern- 
most portions of the island, served by fine 
well-preserved roads, and the Ginganga. As re- 
gards labor, the condition of the inhabitants in 
Upper Burma is such, that almost the entire force 
of labour employed by the Ruby Mining Company 
will have to be imported, principally from India ; 
whilst the protecting force will in all probability 
be armed Madrasees, or perhaps Goorkhas from 
Nepaul. What the cost of such labour may be, it 
is impossible to state, but by the time that all the 
expenses of introduction and teaching, the loss of 
advances consequent on death by disease and vio- 
lence, the cost of a medical staff, and payment for 
protection, are ail totalled up, — the cost per head for 
each day's labour will be something enormous, 
sufficient to startle most Ceylon men out of 
their usual equanimity. Whereas in Ceylon the 
labour force is resident on the spot, a force 
accustomed to the work and climate, requiring no 
advances and no attendance — and obtainable at very 
cheap rate of wages. This should in itself be a 
sufficient inducement for Ceylon gemming to take 
preference over that of Burma or any part of 
the world. All engineers, road officers, planters 
and other men of experience in working large 
numbers of men in the East cannot but admit 
that their work loses almost all its difficulty and 
an immense proportion of its cost, when executed 
by a labour force at once acclimatized to the 
country and accustomed to the work, and such 
a force would be at the disposal of any mining 
company that seeks Ceylon as the scene of its 
operations. Again there is the element of uncer- 
tainty whioh so largely pervades the Burma 
Company's operations and which is altogether 
absent from any such that may be undertaken 
in Ceylon. It is by no means certain that King 
Theebaw really possessed a hoard of magnificent 
rubies such as has been represented. So large 
an amount of tinsel of all descriptions was found 
in the palace and the famous pagodas at Mandalay 
that considerable suspicion was raised whether 
any large proportions of the reputed wealth in 
gems possessed by the king was really of any 
value whatever. In any case, if it really existed, 
much of it most mysteriously disappeared at the 
annexation of the country. But suppose this im- 
mense value of gems did in reality exist, how do 
we know that it was extracted from that one little 
spot of ground known as the ruby mines, and 
if it was so extracted are not the probabilities in 
favour of its being already exhausted and little or 
nothing of value remaining for further working ? 
Again suppose that the whole of the country 
along the Shan Hills should turn out to be 
gemmiferous, other companies or private parties 
who have not paid an immense premium for the 
concession of working have a better chance by far 
in making mining operations a paying conoern 
and underselling the present Company. On the 
other hand Ceylon has no modern tale to tell of 
fabulous stores of hoarded gems, but. in place of 
such creations of fancy and imagination, it can 
point to what can be seen every day — and 
what could have been seen at any time these 
hundred years past, a steady production of valu- 
able gems, being continually thrown on the 
market as the result of merely sinking little pits 
a few feet in depth, here and there over the 
