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CHAPTER II.
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THE RUBY MINES OF BURMA.
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LL
attempts to lift the veil of mystery which had enshrouded the famous
Ruby Mines of Burma, since the time when they were first brought to the
knowledge of Europeans in the fifteenth century, had been utterly
fruitless until after our formal annexation of Upper Burma, in the
beginning of 1886. Up to that time we were profoundly ignorant of the
conditions under which the gem-stones occurred in this inaccessible
country ; the mines having been jealously guarded from Europeans, and
rarely if ever, visited by anyone possessing a competent knowledge of
mineralogy. Soon after the annexation of Upper Burma, the author of
this work, under circumstances which will be fully explained
subsequently, applied to the Indian Government for a concession of
mining rights in the newly acquired territory. During the negotiations,
his son, Mr. George Skelton Streeter, Mr. C. Bill, and Mr. Beech, were
permitted to accompany the first military expedition to the Ruby mines.
In Murray's Magazine for May, 1887, an article was published on
the subject, which had peculiar interest, since it was written at the
mines, and was the first description which had ever appeared from the
pen of any European expert in gems, personally acquainted with the
stones and with the district.
Much of the following description of the mines, is from the pen of Mr. W. S. Lockhart, C.E., who resided at
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