686 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST [April i, 1890. 
could be got on his DoloEbage reef by going 
deeper ; but with his tea flourishing so 
well aboveground, he does not care, at least for 
the present, to carry his mining operations farther. 
We mention this me ely en passant ; for we 
have to do today with boih Gold and Gem Digpging 
at our very doors not cn an extensive scale as 
yet ; but still sufficiently so to create an interest 
in industries which have hitherto been confined 
to interior districts. The intelligence of a Gemming 
industry within a few miles of Colombo reached 
us through Mr. L. Siedle who is wellknown as one 
of the best judges and largest dealers in local 
precious stones. A few days ago Mr. Siedle was 
surprised at a quantity of "stuff," including some 
good gems, being laid before him got from a 
pit on the other side of the Kelani river and 
only a few miles from Colombo. He made 
enquiries and found that washing for gold bad 
succeeded digging for gems and that with the 
results of both operations, the people concerned, 
expressed themselves as satisfied. We had the 
pleasure this forenoon of accompanying Mr. Siedle 
to the spot, the drive after passing the 
Bridge of Boats being along the old Kandy 
road for a mile and lhen for a couple of miles 
or more on a minor road which crossing the railway 
ano passing through the village of Waragoda, runs 
paiailel to, but about a mile away from the Kelani 
river at the point where the scene of the Gem and 
Go.d operations is reached. This is in the garden 
of a respectable Moorman who owns about 8 acres 
of fully planted land with coconut and fruit 
trees. At one corner, he wanted to sink a 
well, and it was in so doing that he came 
on a stratum which led him to think of 
gems and eventually led to the discovery of a 
layer of the much-prized " illan " from which a 
considerable harvest of valuable stones bad been 
gathered. In sinking the pit for gems, the Moorman 
ttok into partnership an intelligent well-to-do 
Sinhalese who had gained experience of gemming 
and the value of stones in Eakwana. lhen for the 
workmen, there were not only Sinhalese employed, 
but some Coast Moormen whose business in life it 
is to wash for gold. Fine, tall, wiry men, the 
three or four of this class on the spot were, with 
eyes aB keen as a hawk's for anything precious and 
in great contrast with the ample rotund form of 
their brother-ieligionist, the gentleman of the garden 1 
The {. em pit is now filled with water and opera- 
tions are for a time suspended, eo that we were 
unable to judge exactly of the extent of the opera- 
tions. But we Eaw no reason to doubt the statement 
that after digging down some 18 to 24* feet to the 
" illan," they had tunnelled in following the layer 
a considerable distance en three sides of their pit, 
and then, (there being to rej ular gempit diggers 
among their number,) tbey were afraid to go on 
whm the rains began to fill ihe place or to try 
tumping out; tut lather pieferred a little later 
to Eir.k another sbatt In Mr. S'edle's opinion, 
the first pit sunk was ridiculously too wide, 
almost double what regular diggers in Bakwana 
would have made it. The formation was very clayey 
and a good deal of potters' clay is got in the neigh- 
bourhood. A large heap of rounded pebbles mingled 
with J remising pieocs of white quartz testified to 
part of Ihe eetris taken out, while close by lay 
a mass of reddi.h eluy with traces of limestone 
vh.ch v as con e tpon Lelow ihe " illan" and which 
ine uced ihe woiknitn '.,ol 10 go deeper. Mr. Siedle 
thinks this v.as a nnsts.ke, and ih&tMiy piobably be- 
low this silII' there may be further gem deposits 
* 18 ftet the top layer of illan : 24 feet the bottom 
cached. 
while digging should go on until the bed rock 
is reached. More interesting than the pebbles and 
clay were bags full of gemniferous " refuse 
which, although all the really valuable stones 
had been washed out, still contained interesting 
pieces of tourmaline, sapphire, pale rubies, garnets, 
crystals, amethysts &o. We were interested in the 
long sloping wooden trough employed for washing 
the "illan" wiih divisions of iron gratings at inter- 
vals by which first the largest, then smaller and 
Emaller stones were intercepted and retained. 
Of course all the washing in this trough 
was done by hand under inspection ; but 
as the men employed were remunerated by 
having shares in the business — the digging 
being carried on as a jointstoek conoern — there was 
leES temptation to appropriate any of the findings. 
The garden proprietor was very particular that with 
all the digging, sluicing and washing as few of his 
young coconut trees as possible should be inter- 
fered with, the sites for shafts being chosen in the 
centre of the squares. To finish about the gems, we 
may mention that on our way back, calling at the 
residence of the Sinhalese partner we saw a con- 
siderable portion of the gem harvest from this 
pit and the connected tunnels. There were parcels 
of sapphires and rubies— but both distinctly in- 
ferior—while on the other hand that of catteyes 
contained Eome promising material, Already a 
good deal of the " findings" had been sold and the 
work though more expensively done than was 
necessary, has been profitable enough to encourage 
further operations. Now there is no reason so far 
as can be judged why a coniideralle extent of land 
in the neighbourhood should not have the same 
gemniferous stratum or strata at certain depths. 
The Sinhalese it Eeems, explore with a primitive 
borer consisting of a wooden rod with steel head and 
point, which when it enters the gem-yielding stratum 
grates on the sharp pieces of quartz corundum, 
&c. and so gives a fair indication to the oper- 
ator. But clearly this cannot be used for any 
great depth. There are gardens on each side of 
the Moorman's which seem quite as likely to be 
profitable locations for gempits as his, and it is quite 
possible that we have been looking at what may 
be the beginning of a considerable industry. 
As regards gold, Eome of the Coast Moormen 
were so stiuck with seme of the "stuff" brought 
out of the gempits— titaniferous black sand i-' 
connection with the gravel and clay — that when 
the heavy lains put a stop to their gemming workn 
they set to, and washed for gold. Their arrangeg 
ment for this puipose is of the simplest: an oblond 
wooden spout shut at one end, open at the other 
made of hard smooth wood, and placed at such 
an angle in front of the squatting Moorman as ensure,! 
ordinary sand or clay running off with the rush o 
water poured on, while the black sand and much more 
the specks of gold remained behind. One man 
shovelled some of the sand-clay heap into the 
" sluice," the operator dipped his Ecoop made 
of talipot leaf into the pool of water at his side 
and washed the stuff down the spout, working 
it with his left hand, and having one or two pieces 
of tile at the opening to keep in the layer of black 
sand. When a sufficient quantity had been passed 
through in this way to make a goodly deposit 
of the black sand in the trough or sluice, the 
Moorman began to work it carefully, so that the 
lighter portions only weie cleared away: he then 
got clean (not ihe yellow clayey) water poured 
on through which the specks of gold became clearly 
visible and then an earthen chatty at the end 
of the spout caught the last portion of the 
heavy sand washed down with the gold. Each 
washing in this way took about half-an-hour and 
