Ceylon
of the worth of the precious stones which are sent out of the island.
Only a small part is sent to England. The rest are bought up by private
hands, but these ultimately find their way into the English market. It
is calculated roughly, however, that the value of the precious stones
found in the, island is £ 10,000 yearly.
It
is said that the Dutch East India Company formerly received the rough
stones in packets, sealed with their special seal. Those packets were,
sold by auction, without being opened. Often from 20,000 to 30,000
florins were paid for one packet, and the buyer was very rarely wrong
in his purchase.
Sapphires and Rubies,
The
prominent forms of crystallization are the six sided prism and the
hexagonal pyramid. The predominant colours are blue and red.
Sapphires
are azure blue, indigo, ducks-neck colour, violet-blue, poppy-red,
cochineal, carmine, rose-red to rose-white, milk-white, yellow white,
French-white, lemon-coloiir and green. As a rule, the colours are pure
and high. Sometimes a, crystal is found exhibiting a variety of
colours. The asteria or star sapphire shows, under the miscroscope,
thread-like shafts directed towards the faces of the six-sided prisms,
said to be spaces left at the moment of crystallization, and it is the
reflection of ligrit from these which give to the stone its star4ike
brilliancy.
The blue variety is called sapphire in its limited sense.
The red variety is the ruby.
Other varieties deserve notice, such as spinel, garnet, zircon, etc.
The
finest rubies and sapphires are found in largest quantities in Eurmah,
at Mo-gast and Kiat-pyan, five days' journey from Ava.
The
small sapphires of Ceylon are well-nigh all of a rose-red. They can. be
obtained easily from old collections, as they were formerly used
officially. They are so clearly crystallized that they are easily
distinguished from spinel, which often accompanies them. Those found in
Ceylon, Siam, and other eastern countries are remarkable for their
colours. They are found like rolled pebbles in channels of rivers, and
the colours run through green, red, yellow, and black, Bertolacci
affirms that "the brilliancy and beauty of those in Pegu far exceed
that of those found in Ceylon."
At
the foot of the Capelan Mountain, near Sirian, a city of Pegu, and in
the vicinity of Kandy, corundum is also found in the detritus of
granite, magnetic-iron, zircon, &c, all having been probably washed
down from the granite mountains,
In Ceylon the sapphire is common, the ruby very rare; but the converse is the ease in Pegu.
There
are famous mines of rubies at Badakshan in IJsbekistan, a part of
Tartary. The mines were known to the Emperors of Delhi. They are near
the Oxus, near Shunan. There is a belief among the natives that two
large rubies are always near together: thus it is that the fortunate
finder Of the one hides it until he has found the twin like it; failing
this, they will often break a large one in two. There is a belief also
that the ruby is the product of the transformation of limestone, and
that it is found in the form of pebbles. Near to the ruby mines a great
quantity of blue felspar is obtained,
Corundum (proper) and Diamond Spar.
The
mineral generally termed corundum is found in crystals with rough
planes as a rule, and in individualized masses of a particular
cleavage. The rhombohedral form occurs as in the former varieties, but
here only in combinations. The fracture is uneven. The colours,
generally dull, are of green-jsh-giey, greenish-white, ,asparagus tint,
oil, pearl grey, flesh or rose red sometimes of a chestnut brown. It
has only an inferior degree of trans parency. The last-named variety
comes from China, and because a peculiar
