THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [July 2, 1888. 
chiefly minute dust, and such is the case ai a 
rule still, the dust being so minute and so much 
resembling " a grain of wheat in a bushel of 
chaff," that the question in regard to gold 
searching — " Will it pay?" — has not yet been solved 
in the affirmative. We shall know more when 
the weather permits wider and deeper search in 
the alluvials of the Morawak Korale. Even there, 
however, the men who are represented as finding 
nuggets regarded the gold as merely a subsidiary 
find in the main pursuit, which was for 
gems. In California and Australia it was the gems 
which were reckoned subsidiary and, until recently 
in Australia, of very secondary consequence to the 
gold. If really appreciable nuggets were found 
near the surface, then it would seem by all 
analogy to follow, that still heavier masses of 
the metal will be found farther down in the alluvial 
until the bed rook is reached. This expectation iB 
founded on the well-known principal that the heavier 
the specific gravity of a substanoe, the greater is its 
tendency to sink through decomposed and yielding 
rook. But the experience of 1854 renders us, if 
not sceptioal, at least very cautious as to nuggets 
alleged to be found by natives. When Mr Armitage, 
in the oourse of the operations whioh he will resume, 
when the violenoe of the monsoon is abated, finds 
as we trust he may, plenty of nuggets 
and describes their composition and character 
we shall feel on safer ground. Meantime, the history 
of other gold-bearing formations in other countries 
seems to favour the probability of rich finds of appreci- 
able agglomerations of the precious metal, if they exist 
at all, rather in the lower than in the higher formations 
of our mountain system. The alluvial swamps and 
flats in the latter, however,— the "Moonstone Plain" 
in Nuwara Eliya and similar formations, stretching 
along the great elevated tableland, to Uva, have 
been more or less dug for gems, and in some of 
them the slight colour of gold has been recently, 
as well as in 1854, seen. Small nuggets, too, 
have been found, leading to hopes being 
cherished of further and richer finds in the 
direction of the matrix which have never been 
realized. We have heard so much of " the 
matrix " in Ceylon, from the time of Gygax, with 
reference to precious stones, until now in regard 
to gold, while we have seen or heard so little of 
the identification of any such mother-rock, that 
we begin to suspect that in our Ceylon minera- 
logy " matrix " and " myth " must be synonymous. 
Sir Samuel Baker, on arrival in Ceylon, on the 
ocoasion of his latest visit, told us that one of 
his main objeots he had in view was to search 
up to the heads of certain streams in which 
during his previous residence he had seen abun- 
dant fragments of precious stoEes. But, although 
the great traveller lost jewels at Nuwara Eliya, 
he said nothing of having found the matrix 
of the rubies, any more than he found the 
matrix of the minute gold specks which showed 
in his Nuwara Eliya diggings of 1854. Then, as 
now, it was asked why Government do not 
directly aid the settlement of the question whether 
paying gold deposits exist in Ceylon. We have 
frequently urged a regular geological survey, and 
we would now strongly recommend the intro- 
duction of an expert with a diamond drill from 
Australia. What is specially needed is that our lower 
quartz reefs should be tested. It is, however, sig- 
nificant enough that in all the digging of planta- 
tions in Ceylon and all the cuttings for the 
railway, even in the mountains, we should 
have heard nothing of finds of gold. But 
such diggings and cuttings are, after all, not 
much more than superficial. The only quartz 
reef of any importance out through in the line to 
Nanuoya was that on St. Andrew's estate, Dimbula. 
But much of the section to Haputale will 
run through quartz formations, which ought, 
simultaneously with the blasting, cutting and 
tunnelling operations, to be thoroughly examined 
by experts and diggers for gold. Recently a 
small nugget was found in one of the streams 
running down from the side of Totapala, 
and also some copper pyrites and black oxide 
of manganese. But it is the usual taie of 
only small quantities found and futile searches for 
more. Still gold may be found on the bed rock below 
the marshes on the railway line near Patupola, none 
of which Mr. Waring found to exoeed 9 feet in 
depth. The black oxide of manganese suggested 
to its finder the idea of coal, and we took 
it for peaty matter mixed with the maguetic iron 
sand in whioh gold is so often found. Experts, 
however, decided that the stuff which had blackened 
the quartz was manganese, the substanoe which 
gives colour to our " rose quartz " and our purple 
amethysts. There is no great .market for it at pre- 
sent, but mines of manganese as well as of copper 
would be welcome additions to our resources. 
As for Mr. Judd's coal, it was of course En- 
glish in every oase. We only wish coal could 
be discovered in Ceylon ; it would be more 
valuable to us than gold. But, while Dr. Davy's 
case teaches caution, we feel that it is about as cer- 
tain as anything can be that ooal in Ceylon is 
more of a myth than even the long-sought-for 
but never found matrices, teeming with brilliant 
gems and coloured richly by auriferous metal. 
♦ 
CHINA TEA IN 1887. 
No article of the exports of China during 1887 
attracted more notice and engaged more attention 
than tea. Opinion seemed to point to it as a waning 
business. The total quantity exported from the treaty 
ports was 2,096,097 piculs in 1887, against 2,217,295 
piculs in 1886. Judging by quantity, 120,000 piouls, 
say 5 per cent., less left China in the later of these 
two years, the earlier of the two being an unprece- 
dented year. But as between the two years, there 
is a vast difference in the values. Thus, the assessed 
value of the export of 1886 referred to was Hk. Tls. 
33,504,820, and that of the export of 1887 referred 
to was Hk. Tls. 29,379,838, the difference being Hk. 
Tls. 4,124,982, a fall of over 12 per cent, on a dim- 
inished export of 5 per cent. It is therefore to the 
depreciation in value, with its likely effect in bring- 
ing about a diminished production in years to come, 
that we must attribute the apprehensions enter- 
tained for the prosperity of this vast industry.— 
Hongkong Daily Press. 
TEA PLANTING IN JAVA. 
An upcountry correspondent favours us with the 
following extracts from the letter of a well-known 
Java resident : — 
Parakansalak, 15th May. — I duly received your 
favour of the 5th March, and thank you for 
the Observer you send. Unhappily, I am not in the 
opportunity of sending you tobacco seed. I have 
done my best, and wrote to different people at Deli 
(Sumatra), but all refused to let me have the seed, 
and plainly wrote that they will give seeds to nobody, 
even if there is more than they want for their own to- 
bacco fields, and better destroy it, but to help swamp- 
ing the market with tobacco just as the tea does 
now. I am also interested in a large tobacco com- 
pany at Brit. North Borneo, and wonder how the 
manager, who was former employed in Deli, will be 
able to secure seed ; the next monsoon they must 
commence planting. Tea planting in Java is not so 
bad as many people in Ceylon would believe : I for 
instance, made clear £8,000 in 1887 out of Parakan- 
salak, The smallest dividend paid by a tea company 
