May i, 1890.] THE TROPICAL 
ABRTGULTURIST. 
position. In some looalities it is almost petrified, 
in others it is comparatively soft and easy to work. 
Crushing machinery forms part of the plant pro- 
vided by the engineers of the Company. The other 
position may be described as in the matrix or 
to use a technical term in situ ; and when we allude 
to this, we must oonfess that the position is not 
so simple as in the alluvial deposits. In fact the 
attention of the Company seems likely to be almost 
wholly taken up by the alluvial deposit, leaving 
the more difficult abstraction of the gems, from 
the matrix to a future opportunity. These con- 
ditions we believe are almost identical with those 
under which gem collecting is conducted in Ceylon. 
Deposits of gemmiferous day are found all over 
the principal mining districts, and the stones are 
oarefully washed and separated from the surround- 
ing soil, whilst the gems in the matrix are left 
to be discovered and collected in some indefinite 
period of the future history of the island. As is 
no doubt well-known in Burma, the Burma Ruby 
Mining Company have an almost exolusive right 
to the use to explosives in mining operations, but for 
anything that is apparent at present, they have no 
immediate intention of availing themselves of the 
privilege such a monopoly necessarily involves. They 
are apparently perfeotly content to work the alluvial 
deposits at present, being confident that their 
enterprise will be amply rewarded before any 
neoessity arises for their searching for gems in the 
adamantine matrix in which nature has placed 
them." 
So far then as regards tin matrix very little 
reliable information has been made public, and it 
may fairly be deduced from what is said about it 
that very littln is actually known of it. It is only 
now that the Company has been in existence a full 
twelvemonth, that a scientific expert has been re- 
quested to visit the distriot and point out the most 
likely spots for successful search. There is a report 
ourrent throughout the country and corroborated by 
the evidence of one of the Europeans stationed 
in the Mogok district, that there is not a single 
European in the employ of the Company who can 
tell a ruby from a cockleshell, and that valuation 
and purchase of stones is left in the hands of a 
Chinaman named Ah Sin. It is hardly necessary 
to add that this Celestial is credited with making 
a large fortune for himself, but doing a bad trade 
for the Company. How it is possible that this 
can be done will be seen when a description is 
given of the mode in which so far the Company 
have acquired the rubies they have exported. 
In the firat pliee the Compay has done nothing 
or next to nothing in the way of mining on their 
own account. The maohinery sent up by Mr. 
Streeter early in the last year is nearly all of it 
lying at Thabeittiya on the bank of the river. 
This machinery was taken over from Mr. Streeter 
by the Company, but is now said by the exeoutive 
engineer not to be suitable for the work, and also 
unavailable having been sent out in pieces, for 
putting together of which neither skilled men nor 
workshops existed at the mines. The road was not 
completed until a few mouths ago — and other more 
suitable machines have been obtained and will 
shortly be erected. At the same time it is asserted 
by some who ought to know, that for soma time 
past tin moch inioal engineers and fitters at 
Mogok in tliii Company's employ number twelve 
persons, aud all they have as yet done is to erect 
and lit up a steam pump ! Taking such a state- 
ment for what it is worth, wo know that there are 
twenty Europeans at Mogok and some 300 work- 
men and 7"> to HO Groorlcha police: these figures 
havo been given by the exocutive engineer. Before 
repeating what was said by Sir Lopel Griffin 
on the subject, it will perhaps be as 
well to explain the mode in which the 
Ruby Mines Company have become possessed of 
gems. Certain persons, natives of the district and 
claiming to have hereditary rights of mining, are 
granted licenses to dig for gems under certain con- 
ditions, the principal of which is, that all stones 
of value are to be brought to the Company's nominee, 
who makes an offer for purchase of the same. If 
this offer is not accepted, the stones have to be 
sent to Mandalay, and deposited in the Treasury. 
In due course they are exposed to publio auction, 
when the Company's agent has again a right to 
bid. Rightly or wrongly the presence of this 
agent at the sales in Mandalay is stated to be 
a reason for the market value remaining low, when 
it is well-known that very considerable values of 
stones are continually being smuggled out of the 
country. This is explained as follows : — When no 
other agents are present at the sale, the Company's 
man has it of course all his own way and purchases 
at his own prioe. He at once constitutes the de- 
mand and ruler o£ rates. When other purchasers 
are present the Company's man can always find it 
in his power to outbid them,— though of course the 
purchases on that occasion may be at an actual 
loss. Finding they cannot trade at reasonable rates, 
the outsiders refrain from attending the sales, and 
the Company's Agent reverts to his previous posi- 
tion of monopolist. 
' There is no doubt plenty of room at the mines 
for profitable employment of hydraulic machinery 
for the raising of water and carrying it by pipes 
to the places where it is required for washing the 
ruby sand. A number of the hill mines (Huaiodwin) 
can now only be worked in the rains. These are 
simple cuttings in the hill sides, water being led 
to them by artificial channels. It is said the best 
stones are found in the vallies. There are appa- 
rently four modes of mining in the ruby mines 
district at present. The Huawdwin, described 
above ; Loodaiodwin, a gallery run into a hill 
side; Asoodwiu, a hole or well dug into the ground 
containing water ; Achouckdwin, a hole or well dug 
in the fiat ground containing no water. There is 
a good specimen of the gallery system at Bormadaw, 
which has been worked for a long time by the Bur- 
mese, but want of ventilation makes the working diffi- 
cult now, and it is a laborious effort to get out 
the rock without blasting whioh oaused many acci- 
dents and whioh was therefore put a stop to shortly 
after the annexation. Bormadaw is a hill about 4,750 
feet in height. The passage to the ruby mining 
gallery is a narrow hole between large rock boul- 
ders, lOO feet deep; between these the ruby sand has 
fallen and filled up whatever spaoes were left, the 
water finding its way further down the hill. The 
Burmese have oarefully soraped out and oollected 
all the ruby sand where the passage between the boul- 
ders has been large enough to admit a man. All up 
this mountain are mines of one or other of the 
descriptions above given, and if blasting was allowed 
and carried on scientifically, the finds would, no 
doubt, be more profitable than they have been 
lately. There are thousands of tons of this ruby 
bearing rock on the hill, but as at present worked 
the finds here are not very profitable " H«re is a 
description of one of the other methods of mining 
mentioned above: — "The chief employment is mining, 
in which all the men and many of the women are 
engaged. The methods of mining are very primitive 
especially in what is known as the 'Asodwin,' 
which is used in the alluvial deposits of the vallies. 
A pit is sunk in the soft ground down to the ruby 
sand b<=low. Tho sand varying in quantity from 
4 or 5 cwts. up to two tons aocording to the size of 
the pit, ia taken out aud washod for whatever it 
