THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [August i, 1889, 
where the whole range of the mining country is 
within our concession, within which we can readily 
put a stop to any illicit proceedings. Unless 
something could be done to put a stop to the 
competition named, I do not see how any company 
could work successfully." In reply to this it may 
be once for all stated that it is no part of this 
contention to seek for a monopoly, or to hinder 
other parties or companies from doing all they 
can in similar enterprise. The deposits of gems 
have been proved sufficiently extensive and suffici- 
ently valuable to supply all comers, and all that a 
London company would require is a few acres of 
the best land obtainable. They could safely allow 
others to work where they pleased. Of course, it 
would make assurance doubly sure were the com- 
pany to secure lots of land in different districts, 
say Ratnapura, Rakwana, and Morawak Korale, and 
this could be done without any difficulty 
whatever. As for the Ruby Mine Company 
having secured in their concession the whole 
range of mining country in Burma, it is simply 
untrue, as has been demonstrated in former 
articles, and if Mr. Streeter really entertains any 
such impression, his projeoted journey to Burma 
will most assuredly disabuse his mind of anything 
of the kind. He will then find out— if he is not 
already aware of the faot — that the opposition he 
so triumphantly asserts cannot possibly exist has 
already begun to make itself distinctly manifest. 
He will find that "application has been made to 
the local authorities at Mandalay for a concession 
to work mines containing precious stones by parties 
whose pecuniary and commercial status is unex- 
ceptionable," and that the Chief Commissioner has 
not replied " The concession to Mr. Streeter 
debars me from granting your request," as no doubt 
he would have done, were such the case. No, the 
matter has been referred to the Indian Government 
in the usual formal way, and a reply will be for- 
warded in due time. Nor does it occur to the local 
press that any such hindrance exists ; for whilst 
commenting on the incident, the Mandalay paper, 
without any reference to the Ruby Mine Company's 
so-called monopoly, criticizes what it terms the 
"technical obstruction" shown in the course of 
procedure and passes some rather severe strictures 
on the system by which the Chief Commissioner is 
compelled to refer so trivial a matter to the Go- 
vernment of India, and thereby throwing impedi- 
ments in the way of the development of the 
country. Now it happens that the editor of that 
journal is intimately acquainted with every phase 
of the ruby question, and the working of the Ruby 
Act in Burma, as well as the constitution and stand- 
ing of the Buby Mine Company, and had there been 
an impression in his own mind, or amongst the 
public of Mandalay, that Streeter's concession 
stood in the way of the application under reference, 
or any other concession of the kind, we may be 
sure he would not have hesitated in making it 
known and referring to it at length in his article. 
Nothing is known at Mandalay of any such mono- 
poly as is claimed by Mr. Streeter, and such being 
the case is in itself very strong evidence that it does 
not exist. 
Mr • Streeter objects that whereas in Burma 
they have discovered and obtained possession 
of the "matrix" which produces rubies, in 
Ceylon all the precious stones have as yet been 
found in the alluvial ; until the matrix has been 
discovered in Ceylon, a Company would not pay. 
In regard to Burma, the Ruby Company have dis- 
covered and secured just a little minute portion 
ol the matrix, if they have found it at all, and it 
may possibly prove to be very prolific and profitable 
be far as it goes ; no reasonable person oan surely 
wish it otherwise. Mr. Aubrey L. Patton, who in 
a letter to the Pioneer says he alone is responsible 
for the amount of the tender for the lease of these 
mines, points out very fairly that the whole capital 
of the Company, £300,000, may be rea'ized in a few 
lucky finds. The same can be said of a Company 
working in Ceylon, where a capital of one-twentieth 
part of that of the Burma Company would suffice. 
But we contend that in Ceylon there is no 
occasion to trouble ourselves about the matrix 
when the alluvial deposits have been proved to supply 
all the elements necessary for profitable mining. 
The latest find of importance is thus announced in 
a local print :— " There not long ago appeared in the 
papers a story of an alexandrite which had been 
found by Seyid Aheer on his land in the Morawak 
Korale, weighing twenty-six rupees' weight, and 
which was sold for R14.500. We now hear that 
the same proprietor has found another 6 lb. and 
8 rupees in weight, which is valued at R200,000 t" 
This beats the record of lucky finds. Alexan- 
drite was lately valued at £2 10s per carat. 
If considered of advantage by all means search for 
the matrix, which is by no means so unknown as 
Mr. Streeter would have us believe. That rubies 
and garnets of very small size are found in lime- 
stone in Ceylon is beyond doubt — the Ramboda 
limestone is stulded with them, but there is no 
record of anything of marketable size having been 
found. Then Mr. Dixon tells us that the same 
thing occurs at Wilson's Bungalow ; and the dolo- 
mite at Wariapola in Matale contains a large 
quantity of blue spinel. As regards sapphires 
(which embrace rubies), Mr. Streeter has told us 
" precious stones arid gems are found most 
frequently in secondary deposits, loose in sand, or 
in debris with other precious stones. Occasionally , 
however, it is found embedded in primary deposits, 
in granite, syenite, basalt, gneiss, talc and horn- 
blende, strata of spicular iron, and magnetic iron- 
stone." Bearing this in mind, especially as regards 
gneiss, it will be seen that Dr. Rudolf Gygax in his 
report made to Lord Torrington as far back as 1847-48, 
fifty years ago, had then hit upon the matrix 
from which the ruby is produced. He says : — " I 
found at Hima Pohura on the south-eastern de- 
cline of the Pettigalakanda, about the middle of 
the descent, a stratum of grey granite containing, 
with iron pyrites and molybdena innumerable rubies 
from one-tenth to one quarter of an inch in diameter, 
and of a fine rose colour, but split and falling to 
powder. It is not an isolated bed of minerals, 
but a regular stratum extending probably to the 
same depth and distance as the other granite 
formations. I followed it as far as was practicable 
for close examination, but everywhere in the lower 
part of the valley I found it so decomposed that 
the hammer sunk into the rock, and even bamboos 
were growing on it. On the higher ground near 
some small round hills which intercept it, I found 
the rubies changed into brown corundum. Upon 
the hills themselves the trace was lost, and instead 
of a stratum, there was merely a wild chaos of 
blocks of yellow granite. I carefully examined all 
the minerals that this stratum contains: felspar, 
mica and quartz, molybdena and iron pyrites, and 
I found all similar to those I had previously got 
adhering to rough rubies offered for sale at Co- 
lombo. I firmly believe that in such strata the 
rubies of Ceylon are originally found, and that 
those in the white and blue clay at Balangoda 
and Ratnapura are but secondary deposits ; I am 
further inclined to believe that these extend over 
the whole island, though often intercepted and changed 
in their direotion by the rising of the yellow granite." 
Dr. Gygax adds that having often reoeived the miner- 
als of this stratum with the crystals perfeot, he bad 
