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Sec. III, Ch. 4: The Saffire

Sec. III, Ch. 4: The Saffire Page of 366 Sec. III, Ch. 4: The Saffire Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
The Sapphire.
183
The most productive Sapphire mines of Siam are those of Pailin, about 50 miles from Battambong. The mining district occupies an area of about six miles by two, and comprises a number of villages, of which Bo Yaka and Bo Din Nia are the chief.
The mines consist of rude excavations on the sides of the mountain and in the valley. These excavations usually take the form of pits, from four to six feet square. The actual stratum which contains the Sapphires is a clay, with gravel, about 20 inches thick, and occurring at variable depths up to about 20 feet below the surface. The miners work in gangs of two or three in each pit, and raise the Sapphire-earth in baskets, by means of ropes made with creepers. The clay is washed, and the gems are picked out of the residuum by hand. The miners are chiefly Shans, who employ Laos as labourers.
Prof. H. Louis, in describing the Sapphire and Ruby mines of Moung Klung, a district between the two provinces of Chantaboon and Krat, expresses his opinion that the gem-stones have been derived from the dis­integration of the trap rocks, which enter largely into the constitution of the neighbouring hill-ranges.
The principal gem-bearing country of Siam, so far as at present known, covers a very large area, with the sea­port of Chantaboon as a trade centre. It appears that the gem mines in the province of Chantaboon have been worked much longer than those of Battambong.
The Sapphire mines of Siam have been described recently by Mr. H. Warington Smyth, who resided in Siam for several years as a Government official directing the mining industry of the country. He visited not only the gem-mines of Battambong, Chantaboon and Krat, but
Sec. III, Ch. 4: The Saffire Page of 366 Sec. III, Ch. 4: The Saffire
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