TO THE COURT OF AVA. 203 
sapphire and ruby mines are considered the pro¬ 
perty of the King, or at least he lays claim to all 
that exceed in value a viss of silver, or one hun¬ 
dred ticals. The miners often, it appears, evade 
this law, by breaking the large stones into frag¬ 
ments. In the royal treasury, there are, notwith¬ 
standing, many tine stones of both descriptions. 
The year before our visit, the King received 
from the mines one ruby weighing 124 grains; 
and the year preceding that, eight good ones, but 
of smaller size. No stranger is permitted to visit 
the mines ; even the Chinese and Mohammedans 
residing at Ava are carefully excluded. Noble 
serpentine, called by the Burmese Kyaok-sin, or 
green stone, is exported in considerable quantities 
by the Chinese to their own country, being there 
used, as I understand, for rings and amulets. 
From what I could learn, it is obtained in certain 
mountains in the country of the Kyen. 
There appears to be no deficiency of iron ore in 
the Burmese dominions. Mines of it are wrought 
in the vicinity of the mountain Paopa, in the 
country of Lao, and other places. From the 
ignorance of the natives, and the want of machi¬ 
nery, and not from any defect in the ores, the 
metal obtained is so imperfect as to lose from 
thirty to fifty per cent, in the process of forging 
it; and I do not understand that the Burmese 
are at all acquainted with the art of preparing 
steel, or of fabricating utensils of cast iron. 
