796 
THE TR0P1CW. 
AGRICULTURIST. 
[Tune i, 1889. 
of the world, is an exceedingly poor one in the 
face of the increasing competition offered by India 
and Ceylon not simply in England, but in America 
and Australia. One point of which Sir Robert 
Hart makes a good deal in his Report is, that 
Russia which formerly bought largely through 
London, now receives almost its total supply of 
teas direot from China, Russian merchants and 
agents having established themselves at the export 
ports. This suggests to us that Colombo mer- 
chants and some of our tea planters should make a 
speoial effort to secure a considerable portion 
of the valuable Russian tea trade. It is well- 
known that the Russians buy some of the most 
expensive teas, and superior " Ceylons " should be 
well-suited to their market. Possibly, some at- 
tempts may have been made, apart from those 
recorded in our columns by Sir Graeme Elphinstone, 
to get a share of the Russian trade ; but we 
ought not to be content until a local agency is 
established to ship tea direct from Colombo to 
Odessa. 
No effort should be wanting at this end to- 
wards palliating the approaching crisis by| 
endeavouring to divert as much of our Ceylon 
teas as possible to other than the London market. 
The American Company in this connection affords 
a most commendable agency in the interests of 
the Ceylon planter. So will the Australian 
Company when it begins business as we hope it 
may before the end of the year. No doubt of 
the teas sent from Colombo to London an ap- 
preciable and increasing proportion goes direct to 
special agencies and dealers without troubling the 
Mincing Lane market, and in this direotion also 
there is probably room for Ceylon planters and 
other local residents to aid in development and ex- 
tension. No more than "Proprietor" are we in- 
clined to minimise the gravity of the approaching 
situation and the news that the average price of 
the Ceylon tea sold last week in London had 
fallen to 9|d will come upon our planters as a 
certain presage of truly trying times to follow. If 
the month of March showed tea shipments from 
Colombo exoeeding million lb. what may be 
expected for June and July ? We may see the export 
up to 5 or 6 million lb., and even this quantity exceeded 
later on, say in November or Deoember; It 
behoves all ooncerned therefore to exert them- 
selves in every way possible to aid in relieving 
the pressure on the London market ; while planters 
ought to consider very seriously the question whether, 
after the present planting season, they should plan 
to add any more olearings — for the present at 
least — to the tea plantations or gardens of Ceylon. 
4. 
PRECIOUS STONES. 
The wonderful fact that the common charcoal is 
substantially the same material as the diamond has 
a parallel in the equally wonderful result of the 
chemical analysis of the ordinary red and yellow clay, 
so common and abundant, which is shown to have 
for its base the same material — alumina as the group 
of minerals to which the general name of corundum 
is applied, including the incomparable stones, the ruby 
and the Bapphire, which have the highest rank among 
coloured gems. The various forma of corundum are 
found by the chemist to contain more than half their 
weight of that peculiar metal widely known as alumi- 
nium, which much resembles silver in colour and 
lustre, yet is very different from it in its extreme 
lightness. The oxide of this metal is called alumina, 
which in its natural state forms tbe mineral corundum. 
The transparent crystals of corundum present the 
alumina in a state of purity, with just a trace of oertain 
metallic oxides, from which the exquisite tints of colour 
ate derived. The name of eaoh variety of the corundum 
is determined by its colour — the red being known as the 
raby, the blue as the sapphire, the yellow as yellow 
sapphire or Oriental topaz, the green as green 
sapphire or Oriental emerald, and the purple as Orien- 
tal amethyst. All varieties of the corundum can be 
scratched by the diamond, but by no other mine- 
ral, and its extreme hardness has suggested the 
theory that the adamas of the early Greek writers 
was not the true diamond, but a form of corundum. 
In sucb a passage as the following : " The sin of Juda 
is written with a pen of iron and with a point of 
diamond," the original word translated "diamond" no 
doubt refers to emery or some similar form of corun- 
dum, which hua been used for ages as material for 
polishing other minerals. Although specimens of vari- 
ous colours have been found in many parts of the 
world, and during the last ten years in North Carolina 
especially, the chief source of supply is India. The 
red variety of corundum is known as the ruby. The 
kingdom of Burma furnishes the greatest number of 
rubies, and, by command of its king no Europeans 
are ever allowed to visit the mines. They are a royal 
monopoly, and the rarest and finest specimens are re- 
tained for the king's own use, and one of his titles 
is "Lord of Ilubies." One of the former kings had 
a wonderful ruby of the size of a pigeon's egg, which 
he wore as au eardrop. By a law which compels, 
under the penalty of death, the giving up of all rubies 
of over a certain size to the financial department of 
the Government, many rubies of large size are lost, 
because the finder of them will break them up into 
smaller pieces in order to retain them. Very few 
persons are aware of the great value and rarity 
of really fine rubies. From the beginning of 
civilization to the present time the ruby has been the 
type of concentrated preciousness ; " Her price is 
above rubies." About fifteen years ago the financial 
necessities of the Burmese Government caused the 
appearance in Europe of two of the finest rubies of 
their size ever seen. After being recut one weighed 
about 32 carats, and was sold for 50,000 dols., and the 
other weighing about 40 carats, found a purchaser at 
100,000 dols. Two such stones were not to be found 
in any European regalia, and their sale caused intense 
excitement in Burma, a military guard being considered 
necessary to escort the persons conveying the packages 
to the vessel- Rubies vary in colour from the lightest 
rose tint to the deepest carmine, and are occasionally 
approached so closely, both in colour and general 
appearance, by the spinel as to render a close examin- 
ation necessary to distinguish them apart. The spinel 
is composed of alumina and magnesia, and has a wide 
range of colour. The Rev. O. W. King states that " all 
the great historic rubies now extant are pronounced 
spinels by modern mineralogists." The blue variety 
of corundum is known as the sapphire, and differs 
from the ruby only in its colour. It is very slightly 
harder than theruby.and occurs in much larger crystals. 
They were originally obtained from Arabia and Persia, 
but now come principally from Ceylon and Burma. The 
characteristic colour of the sapphire is a clear blue, very 
like to that of the blossom of the little "corn-flower," 
and the more velvety its appearance, the greater 
the value of the stone. The Oriental sapphire retains 
its exquisite colour by gas light, while that of the 
inferior specimens becomes dark. The ruby and 
sapphire forms a distinct class of the corundums by 
their being alumina in a pure and unmixed state 
crystallized, while the other varieties present the 
alumina in combination with other substances. The 
true chrysoberyl is alumina combined with glucina. 
The colours range from light asparagus green, brown- 
ish yellow, to columbine red. Of the three varieties 
the best known are the cymophane, or true Oriental 
catseye, and the alexandrite. The catseye is found 
in Ceylon, is always cut in highly convex form, 
and has a remarkable pUy of light in a certain di- 
rection, resembling a drop of water or the pupil of 
an eye moving about inside of it, or a band of light 
floating on its surface, ever shifting, like a restless spirit 
from side to side as tbe stone is turned. No wonder 
that an imaginative and superstitious people regard 
it with awe and wonder, and, believing it to be the 
