Portal logo
PRECIOUS STONES.
573
the monopoly of the Crown and were jealously guarded. It was said that they paid King Thebaw's Government annually 100,000 rupees and one year 150,000 rupees. Mining is carried on there by forty or fifty wealthy natives, who employ the poorer townspeople at liberal wages; but at present only seventy-eight mines or diggings are in operation and the work is done in the most primitive manner. The gravel is carried in baskets. The holes from which they are taken are allowed to fill with water every night. All of the gems are sent to Ruby Hall, Maudalay, to be valued. At present the royalty exacted by the English Govern­ment is 30 per cent. A stone was lately sold in Mandalay for 8,000 ru­pees, but -without the knowledge of the officials.
One thing, at least, we learned from the British occupation of Bur-mah, namely, that King Thebaw did not own the dishes of rubies which were said to outrival anything known. His possessions of this kind proved to be only a few stones of poor quality.
Watch jewels.—About 1,200,000 watches with jeweled works are an­nually manufactured in the United States, requiring about 12,000,000 jewels, 7 to 21 for each watch; of these 5,000,000 are ruby and sapphire, and 7,000,000 are garnet jewels, valued at over $300,000. Most of them are imported, but the Waltham Company does its own cutting, employ­ing in this department about 200 hands, under the superintendence of Mr. W. R. Wills. About 15,000 carats of bort, in powdered form, are used annually in slitting and drilling these jewels. Nearly all the ruby, sapphire, and garnet used for jewels are imported, but it is hoped that American materials will soon be used. To be of value for this purpose, the material must be of some decided shade of red or blue, of a hard­ness greater than quartz, and free from flaws.
During the last decade new stones have come into favor, some neg­lected ones have regained their popularity, and still others, such as the amethyst and cameos, have been thrown out entirely. The latter, no matter how finely cut, would not find purchasers now at one-fifth of their former value; about ten years ago they were eagerly sought after at from four to twenty times the present prices. Bubies were consid­ered high teu years ago, and a further rise was not looked for, but to­day they are still higher, a 9-5/16 carat stone having been quoted at $33,000. There is no demand at present for topaz, yet a syndicate of French capitalists has been organized to control the topaz mines of Spain in the expectation that after twenty years of disfavor this gem will again be popular. Coral has felt the change of fashion, for during the last three years the imports have been less than $1,000 per annum, and in the last ten years in all $33,956, whereas in the ten years pre­ceding $388,570 worth were imported. The popularity of amber, on the other hand, is increasing. The imports of amber beads for the ten years, 1868 to 1878, amounted to less than $5,000, whereas during the last ten years $35,897 worth have been introduced. Amber amount­ing to only $47,000 was imported from 1868 to 1878, but over $350,000