June 2, 1890,] 
THE TROPICA 
AGRICULTURIST, 
THE EUBY MINES OF BUEMA. 
A good deal of renewed interest haa naturally 
been created in Burma and its ruby mines, in 
consequence of the recent visit to Burma of Sir 
Lepel Griffin. A gentleman writing from Bombay 
gives an account of the mines, whioh is highly 
interesting at the present time ; — The ruby mines, 
as at present defined, may be considered as limited 
to the four valleys of Mogok, Say Boo, Kathey, and 
Kyatpyen ; and, although they cover a nominal ex- 
tent of 50 square miles (ten by five), the well-defined 
•areas where ruby mines are known to have been 
actually worked are included in a total space of less 
than five square miles. The remaining space, 
although not worked in the past, is, however, con- 
sidered likely to prove not less prolific of rubies 
in the future than that part whioh has been already 
exploited by the natives. Although they might be 
further subdivided, there were two prinoipal modes 
of native mining — one adapted to the plains and 
the other to the hillsides. In the former the byon, 
or ruby earth, lies at a depth of from 3 to_ 20 
feet ; and in the latter the operations of the natives 
have been restricted to the clay in the fissures of 
the rocks. Fortunately, these mining operations can 
be oarried on to the most advantage at different 
seasons of the year, the dry season being the 
most favourable for working the byon in the plains, 
and the wet, when the water is more abundant, 
for acting on the lodes in the rocks. At the same 
time, it may be observed that working on the lodes 
can be carried on during the wet season with 
little or no interruption. Experience has shown that 
while common stones are abundant in the byon, 
the larger and more valuable have generally been 
discovered, under greater engineering difficulties, in 
the lodes. These have only been worked by the 
natives in the soft clay which fills up the fissures 
of the rooks, and one of the first suggestions made 
for the improved working of the mines was to estab- 
lish a way, or working, through the rooks in prox- 
imity to some formerly productive fissure. Should 
a profitable lode be reached, it would be easy to 
sink the neoessary shafts, or establish drifts. For 
these operations only the simplest appliances, in 
the shape of drills, jumpers, and dynamite work by 
hand labour, would be requisite. With sufficient 
water power, whioh is rarely deficient, compressed- 
air maobinery and diamond drills can be used. In 
one important point the native workmen were ex- 
tremely deficient and behind the time. They neither 
understood nor could they supply artificial venti- 
lation, and a large number of mines have evi- 
dently been abandoned, not beoause they are ex- 
hausted, but beoause the miners were stopped by 
accumulations of oarbonio acid or oxide gases. 
In working the byon in the plain of the val- 
leys, it is most essential that the supply of water 
should be oopious, continuous, and well regulated. 
Under native management the supply was pro- 
vided in open aqueduots, and these are, of course, 
antiquated, and will have to give place to 
wrought or oast-iron pipes. On the supply of 
water depends the substitution of true hydraulio 
mining for the orude systems hitherto in use 
among the Burmese. The suocess of the mining 
operations in the past has arisen from their 
simplicity, and, probably, it will not be very dif- 
ferent in the future. In dealing with the byon 
in the valley, very likely no mode will work better, 
or prove more remunerative, than the total removal 
of the orust of earth covering the byon, and then 
oarrying the byon itself to the waBhing-house ; 
and this operation might be continued over suc- 
cessive plots, until every inoh of ruby-bearing 
gi&vel had been extraoted. Thia mode of working 
the byon applies evidently to that which is nearest 
|the surface. Much of the byon lies at a depth 
which can only be made accessible by regular 
mining operations ; but it is desirable, from every 
point of view, that the productiveness of these 
mines should be made evident without any 
avoidable delay; and for that reason, if for no 
other, the simplest and most economical — in the 
sense of certainty of result, as well as cheapness 
of oost — prooedure should find favour. — E. Mail. 
SELF-COLONIZATION OF THE COCONUT 
PALM. 
The question whether the coconut palm is 
capable of establishing itself on oceanio islands, or 
other shores for the matter of that, from seed 
cast ashore, was long doubted ; and if the recent 
evidenoe collected by Prof. Moseley, Mr. H. 0. 
Forbes, and Dr. Guppy, together with the general 
distribution of the palm, be not sufficient to 
convince the most sceptical person on this point, 
there is now absolutely incontrovertible evidenoe 
that it is capable of doing so, even under ap- 
parently very unfavourable conditions. 
In the current volume of Nature (p- 276) Captain 
Wharton describes the newly-raised Faloon Island 
in the Pacific ; and in the last part of the Pro- 
ceedings of the Eoyal Geographical Society, Mr. 
J. J. Lister gives an account of the natural 
history of the island. From this interesting 
contribution to the sources of insular floras we 
learn that he found two young coconut palms, 
not in a very flourishing condition, it iB true ; 
but they were there, and had evidently obtained 
a footing unaided by man. There were also a 
grass, a leguminous plant, and a young candle-nut 
(Aleurites), on this new volcanio island — a very 
good start under the circumstances, and suggestive 
of what might happen in the oourse of centuries. 
W. BoTTING HEMSLEX. 
— Nature, April 5th. 
KOLA. 
Our Paris correspondent telegraphs: — A rival to 
caffeine as a muscle-bracing and stimulating drug 
has been found in kola. Professor Haeokel, of 
Marseilles, admits the virtues of caffeine, but he 
says those of kola are greater. He used it in the 
food of members of an Alpine club, who performed 
mountaineering feats of an unusual kind without 
being tired. The colonel of the 160th Regiment 
at Perpignan, dosed by the Professor with kola, made 
the ascent of the Canigou Mountain near Perpignan 
to a height of 9,137 feet, and felt quite fresh after his 
olimb, whioh lasted twelve hours, He only halted 
once, and for twenty minutes, and ate nothing. 
The 124th Eegiment was able last July to acoom- 
plish a maroh of fifteen and a half hours from 
Laval to Bennea under similar conditions. They 
oovered a distanoe of 72 kilometres, and were able 
to go much further in the last hour. They walked 
at the rate of 3§ miles an hour. Kola is better 
than oats for giving mettle and staying-power to 
horses. Perhaps the fasting-men have got hold of 
alkaloid of kola, of which a very small quantity 
goes a long way. — Daily News, 10th April. 
Mr. Thomas Christy, f. l. s., writing from 25, 
Lime-street, E. C, yesterday, says: "I notioe in your 
today's issue a paragraph respecting a remarkable 
drug. As I have for the past ten or twelve years been 
principally oonoeroed in advocating the use of this 
important nut (kola), will you permit me to say that 
I phoiild be most happy to give to any applicants 
