TO THE COURT OF AVA. 
201 
against allowing strangers to carry off marble 
images, but would have none against permitting 
the exportation of the rough material, when they 
found themselves deriving a profit from it. It 
might, therefore, I conceive, be advantageously 
sent to England for statuary. With the excep¬ 
tion of a few miles of land carriage, the Irawadi 
would convey it all the way to the sea, and the 
freight of dead weight to Europe is known to 
be very moderate, from the want of heavy goods 
in remitting from India. The Chinese, who are 
well acquainted with such operations, might be 
advantageously engaged in quarrying it, and con¬ 
veying it to the place of embarkation. 
The precious stones ascertained to exist in the 
Burmese territory, are chiefly those of the sap¬ 
phire family and the spinelle ruby. They are 
found at two places, not very distant from each 
other, called Mogaut and Kyat-pean, about five 
days’ journey from the capital, in an east-south- 
east direction. From what I could learn, the 
gems are not obtained by any regular mining 
operations, but by digging and washing the gravel 
in the beds of rivulets or small brooks. All the 
varieties of the sapphire, as well as the spinelle, 
are found together, and along with them large 
quantities of corundum. The varieties ascer¬ 
tained to exist, are the oriental sapphire (Nila); 
the oriental ruby, called Pata-mra, and Kyaok-ni, 
or red stone; the opalescent ruby, called Pata-mra 
