1S8 
MR, C. BARRINGTON BROWN AND PROFESSOR J. W. JUDD 
occupation, when the authorities prohibited the use of gunpowder by the miners; 
but the fact was unknown to the officials or anyone visiting the mines previously to 
the date of my obtaining the specimens. 
After this, one of the leading mine owners communicated to me the localities 
where the matrix had been worked for rubies. 
The men whom I employed in a period of ten days procured fourteen good-sized 
rubies, besides numerous smaller ones, from 1|- cubic foot of rock. After drilling 
Fig. ]4. 
shallow holes and blowing down small blocks of limestone, they proceeded to break 
them up with hammers, and so obtained the specimens; but, owing to the jarring of 
the rock by powder and hammer, the rubies disclosed were all more or less injured, 
so that their commercial value was greatly reduced. These miners formerly obtained 
in this way rubies to the value of Rs. 200 per month, and on one occasion extracted 
a ruby which they sold for Rs. 300. No doubt there are other places besides those 
mentioned where rubies exist in the limestone, and when a process is found by which 
