September 2, 1889] THE TROPICAL AGHlTjy LTIJ Rl ST. 
sapphire was valued at K2,500, and several small 
ones found in the same pits were sold for over 
B500 The gems are of the first water— very pure 
and of a beautiful rich dark blue, regular Eak- 
wana colours. 
RUSH OF NATIVE PROSPECTORS. 
In consequence of the above discovery a regular 
Btampede of native prospectors have flooded the town 
and surrounding of Balangoda, but much to their sad 
disgust and disappointment, for the Eatemahatmaya 
has made several arrests for gemming on Crown 
land, and a few out of the many were fined 
heavily, so that those who cannot afford to use 
a little " soft soap " and to be allowed to go 
on with their work are loafing about the place with 
hanging heads and long faces. 
GEMMING LICENSES REFUSED. 
It appears some of the land where this rich 
stratum of gravel exists contains valuable timber 
and the Government Agent has refused to grant 
licenses to gem for fear of undermining the 
trees ; there is also the inability to look after 
illicit gemming, which goes hand and hand with 
licenses, and would require an army of 
soldiers to look after them and protect the rights of 
Government. 
DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY. 
Taere is plenty of land adjoining the Government 
land belonging to natives, but they are afraid to 
alio -.7 pits to be opened, as they hold very indifferent 
titles— in fact no title at all except that of in- 
heritance. The river gemming has been stopped 
also, and licenses, I am told, refused, so those 
restless and adventurous spirits must " stampede" 
to some unexplored regions or back to their rich 
Government forest — Handapan Ela in Bakwana— 
where 
SOME SPLENDID CATSEYES 
have been found by simply turning over the surface 
soil. I heard of one a few days ago having changed 
hands for B5,000. I saw the catseye in the rough, 
it was in size and shape like a door handle with 
a splendid shifting ray right in the middle. It 
would be interesting to learn what becomes of 
this gem, but I suppose it would be impossible 
to follow it perhaps through many native dealers' 
hands before it finds its way to the wearer of it 
as an ornament of jewellery. 
SAB ARAGAMU WA AND CALIFORNIA. 
The position of Sabaragamuwa with regard to 
gemming is something like that of California — 
sort) 3 forty years ago full of prospectors who went 
about from place to place sinking a pit here and 
there, taking and washing the gravel that was found 
between its four walls, but nothing more, and 
wherever a lucky find has been made there is a 
rush, and so on those old time prospeotors go 
till a good find is made, when off he goes back 
to the lowcountry sea border. How long is this 
sort of gambling to go on before some company 
is started with capital and European enterprise 
to carry on gemming in a systematic manner ? 
SUGAE. 
According to the Ktilnische Zeitnng, delegates 
from Errand, Germany, France, Belgium, and 
Rus lia are to meet in Brussels at the end of June with 
a view to the establishment, by an English syndicate, 
of a sugar bank with a large capital. The bank is not 
to trade on its own account, but will occupy itself ex- 
clusively with the affairs of its customers. The head- 
quarters will be in London, and branohes will be set up 
in tiie countries named. " Sugar having become of 
late years more and more an exchange article," adds 
the 1 iermau paper, " the relations of the international 
sugar market have bocome extraordinary and peculiar, 
and persons in the commercial and industrial circles of 
those oountries where sugar is produced or consumed 
are beginning to cast about for a remedy to the exist- 
ing state of things." 
The report of the directors of the London Produoe 
Clearing House, Limited, to be presented at the forth- 
coming general meeting of the shareholders, states 
that the accounts show a net profit of £5742 4s 8d., 
which it is proposed to carry forward to profit and loss 
new account. The preliminary expenses of the com- 
pany have been borne by the founders. The business 
of the Clearing House during the past year was limited 
to coffee and sugar, and was, to a large extent, initia- 
tory, which is shown by the fact that of the transac- 
tions incoffee (2,265 ,550bags) more than half (1,263,500), 
and of those in sugar (1,277,000 bags) over two-thirds 
(873,500) were registered during the last four months. 
The advantage of the Clearing House to trade in giving 
facility of sale with security of contract, and thereby 
attracting business to London, is every day becoming 
more recognised, and, as a consequence, tea has just 
been included in its operations, while negotiations are 
in progress for the admission of other leading imports. 
In accordance with the articles of association, the fol- 
lowing directors retire from office— viz. : Hermann 
Fortlage,. Esq., Francis John Johnston, Esq., Henry 
John Jourdam, Esq., who, being eligible, offer them- 
selves for re-election. — H. C.Mail, June 28th. 
+. — 
PLANTING IN NETHEELANDS INDIA. 
The Government in Java has taken steps to en- 
courage the cultivation of trees and shrubs yielding 
valuable perfumes. Both headmen and people have 
been notified that the authorities expect them to 
make a move in that direction. 
The Locomotief says that the coffee enterprise is look- 
ing up on the west coast of Sumatra. New estates 
are being opened out.* There is plenty of land fit for 
cultivation, but, unhappily, the scarcity of labour 
hampers progress in this respect. 
In East Java heavy rains have materially checked 
sugar-cane crushing, but planters look hopefully upon 
the future, from the rise in the price of that article. 
Coffee growers, though at a disadvantage owing not 
only to the wet weather, but also to leaf disease, 
express satisfaction in consequence of the high prices 
ruling for their product. — Straits limes, 10th July. 
ME. C. DEIEBEEG ON THE GEOLOGY 
OS 1 CEYLON. 
As a fair specimen of the information supplied 
in the first number of the Magazine of the 
School of Agriculture, on sciences allied to that 
of Agriculture, we copy the first of a series of 
articles which the Editor, Mr. C. Drieberg, promises, 
on " some of the geological formations of Ceylon." 
Very fittingly he commences with our all-prevalent 
primary rock, gneiss, one of the most protean 
of the metamorphic series. Happily for we fer- 
tility of the resulting soil, most of our Coylun 
gneiss has, as one of its main constituents, a 
form of felspar (orthoclase) rich in potash, which 
is readily dissolved under the influenoe of our 
hot and moist climate and its own self-contained 
stores of water. Mr. Drieberg describes the 
rock as foliated, a term closely equivalent to 
stratified. We are old enough to remember 
the time when gneiss was regarded simply 
as the constituents of decomposed granite diffused 
through water and settling in that element into layers, 
just as we see them in normal gneiss and even 
where the rock has been upheaved into the perpen- 
* The exact truth in this matter is of importance, 
because if new coffee estates are being opened up, 
leaf-disease must have abated in virulence, — contrary 
to experience iu Oeylou.— Ed. L, E. 
