286 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1889 
basket men, who stand in a line in a dammed up piec 6 
of the stream and finish off the washing in th e 
usual way. 
WATCHING THE MEN 
in the trough was the brother of the mine owner 
and another relation, and on the opposite side where 
the baskets were to be searched were seated the repre- 
sentative of the land owner and another relation of 
the pit-owner in a small hut with a bamboo 
about 2 in. in diameter, and one foot long stuck 
in the ground in front of them for receiving the 
gems. I was asked to take a seat beside them, 
and gladly accepted a bowl of strong tea to warm 
me up, for it was blowing and raining as it only 
can do on the Morawak Korale side of the Gap. 
THE SEARCHING OP THE BASKETS 
when brought up by the washers to the feet of those 
two men was really amusing, and was certainly the 
most interesting part of the proceedings. The baskets 
with about I full of washed gravel, out of which all 
large stones and rubbish had been thrown during 
the washing, after careful examination, were brought 
into the hut, laid down, tilted up, and a search 
began by turning up the coat sleeve at the same 
time folding up the forefinger and thumb of the 
right hand and plunging the remaining three fingers 
into the gravel near the edge : it was thus turned 
over little by little till every particle was 
thoroughly examined and every gem of any value 
picked out and dropped into the bamboo in front 
of the two examiners who appeared to be most 
eager and anxious in their search as well as the 
bystanders. When all was finished there was a 
rush for the baskets, which were emptied out down 
the stream, and all the residue in the shape of 
dallam, small gems, &c, were carefully gathered 
for sale by the lb. to the dallam tambies. I 
watched this interesting work for half-an- 
hour, then asked to be shown what was in the 
bamboo, which was reluctantly handed to me for 
examination. I found on emptying out the contents 
that I had a handful of gems mostly sapphires, 
for the purity of which those pits are famous. 
Amongst them was a beauty, a little larger than 
a pea, of peacock blue without a flaw : this was 
the most perfect of the lot, the others being 
irregular in shape and defective in color. 
The rain now became so incessant and heavy 
that the men complained of hunger, and looked 
like so many drowned rats. A retirement to the 
midday meal was consequently suggested, and we 
made our way to the lines, at the end of which 
was an office, where I was invited to walk in, 
hoping to obtain some more substantial informa- 
tion than I had already gathered, from the books 
of the establishment. I raised no objection and 
walked in : when seated at the writer's table I bad 
my eye on the 
GEM BAMBOO, 
which was very carefully emptied of its contents on 
to a piece of foolscap paper, counted, valued, and 
sealed with the mine owner's monograi.i ; but before 
doing so, (by the bye I was surprised to see) several 
very small gems selected and put into a small white 
bottle which already contained a good collection. 
I asked what this performance was for (having 
observed some manoeuvring being gone through), 
and was informed that they were an offering to 
Buddha : without this no success would attend 
their labours. Out of each packet the samy must 
get his lot, which is takf n and presented to the 
temple figure of Buddha. After sealing, a ledger 
was produced and an entry made : "No. 9. 50 pre- 
cious stones, value B.500," which I think was a 
low valuation for the lot, for I am sure the 
good gem which was found during the 
time I was present was worth at least R250, 
about E100 per carat. The otlier eight parcels 
were all valued at a little over R50U each, and 
had all been sent down to Rakwana to be sold 
by auction. I learnt afterwards they had realized 
Rl,250, from the pit owner's books in Rakwana, 
who was not present during my visit to the mines, 
THE CAUSES OF ABANDONMENT. 
It must be remembered that I am only men- 
tioning the gravel of one pit : the other had not 
been touched, and only about one-quarter of the 
one in question had been washed, and had 
realized the handsome sum of R1.250 towards 
defraying an expenditure of R2.500. The washing 
was expected to continue for six weeks longer, 
and should a large gem be found its value alone 
would cover the whole expenditure of both pits, 
which is reckoned not to exceed R5,000. There is 
therefore little doubt that the steady daily return 
from the gravel washed shows clearly that the 
gemming enterprise, even in the primitive native 
way, pays when followed perseveringly. When 
the heavy N.-E. monsoon rains begins those 
pits will be abandoned on account of the 
water; if nothing else. You may say — what else 
would cause abandonment. Well there are many 
things unforeseen which turn up : sometimes rock, 
large boulders, a spring of water too large to 
contend against, and last, but not least, the 
failure of the stratum of gravel, which sometimes 
becomes smaller and smaller, from six feet to 
one or two inches, when the great distance from 
the shaft and other reasons compels abandon - 
ment. After ten, fifteen, and twenty fathoms 
have been tunnelled in every direction, all these 
obstacles could doubtless be overcome with 
the modern scientific mining appliances and 
especially by the use of the diamond drill which 
would enable the miner to find deeper gravel and 
strike in other places when lost. 
ALL GEMMING OPERATIONS ARE SUSPENDED 
during the heavy rains which prevail for the first 
few months of each monsoon, as it is found im- 
possible to keep the water down, at any great 
depth. At the time of my visit there were six 
mines being worked, averaging from seventy to 
one hundred feet deep, which ought to give a 
handsome income to the land-owner, as the 
lessee told me that he had paid R10,000 for his 
l-5th share of the gems dug out of the above 
mentioned pit and others during two years' working 
I was asked to go down the rope into one o 
the mines, but declined with thanks, when 
I was told that six men were buried alive on 
Everton by the roof of a tunnel falling in : this 
would not have prevented me, however, but the 
slippery mud on the rope. 
SOME STATISTICS. 
I was then informed that five gallons of oil is 
daily burned in the lamps used by the miners, and 
that five bushels of rice were cooked for th6m daily, 
besides being paid at rates varying from Rl to 25c 
each. It also costs overR20 per diem to keep the 
water down, and R3 worth of rope only lasts for 
two days ; it is being steadily manufactured at the 
mines. I saw them at work during both my visits 
in the usual primitive way. The mine owner remarked 
to me that he thought a chain would be more 
economical, but he did not think his men would 
like to work with one. Small tunnels are driven into 
the shaft to admit light and air, 
HANDAPANELA. 
I was told that accidents sometimes happen by large 
rocks rolling down on the top of men who employ 
themselves washing out the gravel or sand in the 
stream after heavy rain, where they sometimes 
come across good catseyes washed down from 
the forest above, Handapanela, the lease of 
