The revenue for 1892-'93 was 35,000 rupees and for the year 1893-'4, 52,000 rupees.
LAPIS LAZULI.
One
of the many remarkable objects in the Montez collection,
Anthropological Building, at the World's Fair, was an immense mass of
lapis lazuli measuring 26 inches by 14 by 8, and weighing 360 pounds,
found in a stone grave in the vicinity of Chankas, Peru. The lapis
lazuli was of a fine blue color and this is one of the largest masses
known. In the Montez collection there was also a number of small idols
and figurines of light green and dark green turquoise, the blue color
having been destroyed by burial, if it had ever existed. These were
obtained in the same region of Chankas, in a stone grave. With them
were some small animals made of sodalite mistaken for lapis lazuli,
also found ill the vicinity of Chankas, near Cuzco, Peru. The entire
collection has been acquired by the Field Columbian Museum at Chicago.
LABRADORITE.
The
original locality on the coast of Labrador has been prospected for the
past two years, and Lloyd & Taber, of New York, have obtained an
extensive Government grant of the only available deposits, from which
they have already obtained four tons of good material.
GEM EXPLORATION IN CEYLON.
Mr.
Barrington Brown in January, 1893, presented a report on gem-mining to
the Ceylon Gem and Mining Syndicate, limited. In this report he says
that the rock formations of the island are chiefly gneiss, permeated
occasionally by graphite, garnet, and occasional beds of limestone, and
suggests that the latter may be the source of the spinels which are
occasionally found with the rubies and sapphires.
In the districts visited the gems are generally found in beds of gravel called Ulan by the natives. Usually a number of beds of this Ulan occur,
one over the other, separated by strata of alluvial matter in the form
of mold or clay. The problem which presents itself to those in the
syndicate is to find inexpensive methods of working the lower beds of
gravel; as the upper strata have undoubtedly been frequently worked in
the search for gems during the many centuries in which gem mining has
been carried on by the Singalese, as well as by the natives of India,
who have visited the island for this purpose. There is only one
instance mentioned of valuable gems being found in the main mass of
gneissoid rock. They are always found in the gravel, and hence the
rocks have never been searched. Mining is entirely carried on in the
beds of streams and rivers, both ancient and modern, where the gems
must have either fallen from the overhanging rocks, or come from the
wearing down of rocks at some distance from the river by tributary
streams.
