Vol. VIII. No. 94. 
IMPERIAL INSTITUTE JOURNAL. 
[October, 1902.] 
from particulars supplied by different steamship companies using oil fuel, and gives the 
results actually obtained in practice with both oil and coal : — 
Ship, 
Type of Ruming 
Installation. 
Consumption of 
Oil per I.H.P. per 
hour in Hi. . 
Consumption of 
Coal per I.H ,P. 
per hour in lb. 
H.S. 
I.H.P. 
Ratio of 
consumption 
of Oil to Coal. 
“ C.F.Laiesz ” 
Korting 
I ‘408 
1 ‘93 
7 , 56 ° 
2,200 
73 : 100 
“Sithonia” . 
1 lowden 
OQ65 
1-49 
2,500 
71*4 : 100 
“Murex” 
Rusden-Eeles 
16 tons per day 
25 tons per day 
5,202 
• — 
64 : 100 
“ Syriam ” 
Do. 
1 '32 
— 
2,480 
800 
— 
‘ ! Khodoung ” 
Orde . 
1 '08 
1 -67 
j-o 
O 
O 
960 
64-5 : xoo 
All these vessels have triple expansion engines of normal proportions except the 
“Sithonia,” in which quadruple expansion machinery is fitted, and from the above figures it 
appears possible to realise in actual practice, under the normal working conditions of the 
mercantile marine, the full difference in calorific value between liquid and solid fuel. 
There are several other factors which favour the use of liquid fuel on sea-going vessels 
in addition to its superior evaporative power and the consequent reduction in cost. In the 
first place its use leads to a great diminution in the number of stokers required, so that it 
again effects a considerable economy; in one case 25 men were required for stoking 14 
tubular boilers when coal was used, but with liquid fuel six men sufficed, and on the 
s.s. Mu-rex, 20 stokers -were necessary when under coal, while only three were required to 
attend to the oil burners. Liquid fuel has also a slight advantage over coal as regards 
storage, for whereas one ton of steam coal requires 43 to 45 cubic feet, the same weight of 
oil only requires 36 cubic feet ; and, further, the latter can be carried in places where the 
storage of coal is impossible on account of inaccessibility, or it can he stored in the water 
ballast tanks. Owing to this advantage in storage and the superior evaporative power, a 
vessel burning liquid fuel can reserve a much larger cargo space than when using coal, or 
with the same weight of fuel in the two cases it would be able to steam much further with 
oil. Other advantages of oil fuel are that it is much more convenient and cleanly to take on 
board, there is no trouble with ash or clinker in the furnaces, as there is no solid residue of 
any kind, and the whole quantity carried is actually available as fuel. 
For the reasons which have been indicated above, the use of liquid fuel is rapidly 
extending, even in countries like England, where adequate supplies of steam coal are 
available, though it is probable that coal at a fair price will always have the advantage over 
imported oil fuel. In places entirely dependent upon imported fuel, however, oil will in 
future probably become the chief form of supply, since, weight for weight, it is much more 
efficient than any form of solid fuel, and its transport in suitable vessels is attended with far 
less risk than with coal cargoes shipped from a great distance. 
THE SAPPHIRE FIELDS OF ANAKIE, 
Sapphires have been known, for several years past, to occur in a number of localities 
near the small railway station of Anakie in Central Queensland, and a report was written on 
the subject in 1S92 by Dr, Tack, giving details of their occurrence and of the prospecting 
work carried on up to that time. x\n examination has recently been made by Mr. B. 
Dunstan, of the Geological Survey of Queensland. 
The Anakie railway station is situated on the main Central Queensland line: it is 26 
miles west from Emerald and 192 miles west from Rockhampton. The sapphire fields extend 
from it in a northerly and westerly direction. The Drummond range is the main watershed 
of the Anakie district, having the Lamia, Anakie and other ranges branching off from it. 
The most prominent landmark is Mount Leura, a peak about 2,000 feet high. The 
whole of this area is drained by tributaries of the Nagoa river, of which Theresa creel'; is 
the principal affluent. It is} the smaller branches of Theresa creek, however, such as the 
Central, Tomahawk, Retreat, Argyle and Sheep Station creeks, about which most of the 
deposits of sapphire wash are to be found. There is no difficulty in travelling over most of 
the country draiped by these creeks, but some of it is mountainous and other low-lying 
parts are covered with a dense scrub. Granite and its varieties form the oldest and most 
extensive system of rock-masses in the district. Gneisses, schists and slates rest against the 
granites, and the gradual changes of these rocks from one to the other can be observed in 
places, and from which it is assumed that the granite is of metamorphic origin. Intrusive 
rocks occur — both acidic and basic. The former, consisting of pegmatite, felspar porphyry, 
and felsites, are in great abundance and traverse the granites and gneiesses in all 
directions. The basic variety is either massive hornblende rock or diorite. There are also 
outcrops of epidote and garnet rock in places, resulting probably from the alteration 
of limestones in contact with the granite. The next younger formation consists of a 
series of shales, sandstones and conglomerates, and probably belong to the Permo- 
carboniferous Formation. No fossils, however, have been found in them. There are no 
representatives of the Mesozoic Formations to be found in the district, except boulders of a 
hard flinty quartzite occurring in Tertiary and Recent alluvial deposits. These remnants of a 
pre-existing formation are general in their occurrence in Central Queensland and peculiar to 
that district. Tne rock is known to miners as “ Billy” and has been placed as of “ Desert 
Sandstone ” age. It occurs exclusively in the alluvial sapphire deposits formed below the 
junction of the Drummond beds and the granite. The sapphire deposits are distributed over 
a large area, but nearly all are confined to the granite district and occur on the banks of the 
creeks. The thickness of the sapphire wash varies considerably in various workings, in some 
places being only a few inches, while in others it amounts to several feet. The bottom is 
usually a reddish clay resting on decomposed schists and slates. Mistakes have been made in 
supposing this red clay to be invariably the bottom, since richer beds have at times been found 
below. Frequently the wash is clayey and requires “puddling” before the sapphires can be 
extracted. Much, however, is loose and friable, and the stones are then obtained by “ dry 
sieving.” The important deposits of the district may be separated into the four following 
main divisions : (a) Retreat creek and Sheep Station creek. 
{b) Policeman creel':. 
(r) Tomahawk creek. 
(d) Central creek. 
On Retreat creek there are numerous, but generally small, claims. The sapphires found 
vary in colour and are blue, green, yellow, and parti-coloured. The rock boulders and 
pebbles in the wash include several varieties of “ Billy,” red and brown jasper, basalt and 
other rocks, and amongst the smaller pebbles tourmaline, topaz, rock crystal and varieties of 
chalcedony. In one claim two yellow sapphires, weighing nearly 50 carats each, were 
unearthed. The most important area of sapphire-bearing country occurs a few miles up Retreat 
creek, near to Mt. Bullock, and is about four miles long. 
Deposits of sapphire wash occur on both the north and south sides of Policeman crock. 
The workings on the southern side are mostly on the central and western portions, that to 
the cast not containing sufficient stones of marketable size to make it remunerative. The 
deposits on the north side extend some distance and then cross to the south side of the creek, 
and are connected higher up with those of Iguana Flat. The stones at the latter place are 
large, and diminish in size to the lower end of Policeman creek. 
Of the Central creek deposits very little is known. Their position and area have been 
fixed approximately, and a rapid inspection disclosed immense bodies of wash, forming whole 
hills and ridges which can be traced continuously for miles. What the ultimate result will 
be when they are prospected it is impossible to say, as they might be very poor in sapphires 
or exceedingly rich. On the surface, wherever inspected, pieces of corundum and pleonaste 
and occasional fragments of sapphires of a light green colour were found. The creek is 27 
miles north-west from Anakie station. 
The sapphire deposits of Tomahawk creek are the most extensive in the whole district. 
They are, in places, a mile in width and several miles in length, extending from Mount Hoy to 
below the junction of Tomahawk and Central creeks. Entire ridges are composed of the 
wash, so the deposits must be of great thickness. The area so far prospected is exceedingly 
small compared to its vast extent. The total length, so far as is known, is about fifteen miles, 
but it is probable they extend further north. The wash is similar to that of Central creek, 
and the sapphires found were shades of blue, green and yellow. 
The methods used at present for separating the sapphires from the wash-dirt are very 
simple. If the dirt is loose and dry it may first be passed through an ordinary gravel screen 
to remove the larger pebbles, and then the fine dust is removed by means of the dry-jigger, 
which consists of a screen on four upright springs of brigalow wood. The sapphires are 
picked by hand from the intermediate product; as they are generally coated with clay or iron 
oxides, there is probably a considerable loss in the operations. In the wet method of treat- 
ment the same sieves and jiggers are used, and the sorting is done more expeditiously and 
with less chance of losing the stones than in the dry way. Sluice boxes are not used on 
account of the insufficient supply of water during the greater part of the year. It has been 
estimated that up to the time of inspection ^10,000 worth of sapphires had been sold to 
dealers jn these stones. 
THE INDIGO INDUSTRY OF INDIA. 
The report of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Calcutta, for the year 1901-2 contains some 
interesting notes on the question of indigo cultivation in India and the identity of the plant 
at present grown there. It appears that in the early days of the Indian indigo trade there 
were two centres of export, if not of cultivation, the source in ihese two cases not being the 
same. One of the centres was Surat, and the indigo exported from this place was obtained 
from a form of the Egyptian indigo plant, Indigo/era articulata, which is still met with in 
many parts of India, notably in Scinde and Rajputana. The other centre was Ceylon and the 
Coromandel coast, and here the indigo was derived from the true Indian plant, Indigofera 
tine tor ia, the produce of which was even then held in less esteem than the Surat indigo. 
The cultivation of the Surat or Egyptian indigo gradually extended eastward and finally 
reached the Upper Gangetic plain, but there is no evidence that it ever extended to Bengal 
proper. A third variety of indigo, 7 . sumatrann, was introduced into Malabar, apparently 
from Eastern Malaya, by the Dutch when they held possession of that territory, and later the 
same plant reached Bengal, either direct or through Malabar. This I. sic mat ran a proved to 
be a much more satisfactory variety than either the Egyptian or the Indian, and its cultivation 
spread to such an extent that the two earlier varieties were almost entirely superseded, so that 
the indigo plant which is now grown so largely in the Gangetic plain is not the true 
Indian indigo, 7 . tinctoria, as is generally supposed, but has been derived from a Malay 
variety, 7 . sumatrana. 
Within recent years a variety of East African indigo, 7 , arrccta, has been introduced into 
the Dutch Indies, where it is known as Natal indigo, and has been so favourably received that 
it appears to be displacing all the other Asiatic and American varieties previously cultivated 
there. It has been proposed to introduce this East African indigo into India on an extensive 
scale, but to such a course it has been objected that it cannot possibly succeed as well as the 
present plant, which has hitherto been regarded as the true indigenous variety. As already 
pointed out this is not so, and the indigo plant now cultivated in Bengal is just as much an 
exotic as the East African, so that there is no reason why the latter should not now supersede 
the present Malayan indigo by virtue of its superior characteristics, just as that displaced the 
earlier varieties. A number of varieties of indigo have been under observation for some time 
in the Gardens, and the East African has proved capable of successfully withstanding adverse 
conditions which have been fatal to the others. Thus in September, 1900, very severe floods 
were experienced which practically destroyed all the Indian and American varieties without 
harming the East African, and during 1901 the latter was again entirely unaffected by the 
attacks of an insect pest which killed nearly all the plants of the other varieties. The plant, 
therefore, appears to be a remarkably hardy variety and merits the attention of the Indian 
indigo planters. 
In this connection the present position of the Indian indigo industry may be briefly 
reviewed in the light of the statistics recently published in the return of the Trade of India in 
1901-2. The artificial production of indigo upon a manufacturing scale has resulted in severe 
competition between the natural and synthetic article, and the consequent fall in price has 
had a very adverse effect upon the Indian industry, which is illustrated by the following table, 
giving the exports for the last six years : — 
Year. 
From 
Calcutta. 
From 
Madras. 
From other 
ports. 
Total. 
Value. 
1896- 97 .... 
1897- 98 .... 
1898- 99 .... 
1899- 1900 
1900- OI .... 
1901- 02 .... 
Cwt. 
109,001 
71,364 
81,779 
59 , 07 ^ 
71,637 
55,038 
Cwt. 
43,680 
48,165 
42,760 
39,853 
18,940 
25,400 
Cwt. 
16,842 
I 4 , 3 20 
10,648 
12,489 
11,914 
9 , 3 i 2 
Cwt. 
169,523 
133,849 
135,187 
111,420 
102,491 
89,750 
Rs. 
4 , 37 , 07 , 5/0 
3 , 05 , 74,019 
2,97,04,781 
2,69,25,107 
2,13,59,808 
1,85,22,554 
The steady decline shown by these figures has been brought about partly by the bad 
seasons which have been experienced during recent years, but more largely by the restriction 
of cultivation which has resulted from the low prices now obtained. In Lower Bengal the 
cultivation of indigo has already diminished almost to the vanishing point, but in Bihar the 
planters are attempting to meet the new condition of affairs by the introduction of scientific 
methods of treatment, which aim at giving an increased yield of purer indigo with adiminisbed 
cost, and are also insuring themselves against ultimate failure with indigo by the cultivation 
of other more remunerative crops. It is too early to say what can be accomplished in these 
ways, but now that the planters are thoroughly alive to the situation, some improvement may 
be looked for, though it is admitted that the present position of the industry cannot be regarded 
without misgivings. 
THE OIL-PALM OF WEST AFRICA. 
The-exlraction of palm-oil and palm-kernels, the two principal products of the oil-palm 
Elais guineensis, is one of the most important industries on the West Coast of Africa, the 
trade in these two articles at the present time being estimated at about ^2, 500,000 per annum. 
Curiously enough the preparation of the oil has never been attempted in factories under 
the supervision of Europeans, but has remained altogether a native industry, so that the 
methods of extraction are tedious and wasteful. Dr. Preuss, the Director of the Victorian 
Botanical Gardens, gives an account, in a recent number of Der Tropenpjlanzer , of some 
experiments lie has made in the Cameroon? on this subject, and makes several suggestions 
