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INDIA

concentrated in a small area at the foot of the Shwe
Doung or Golden Mount, which is a spur of the Central
Burmese chain east of the Irawadi. The mines were
captured in 1886, after a stout defence on the part, not
of the miners, but of the traders and robbers who had
lived by illicit traffic in rubies. These people collected the
best fighting men of the Shans within reach to dispute
possession.
The Mogok mines are from 4000 to gooo feet above
sea-level, and are flanked on the north by the rolling hills
of the Shan plateau— hills which rise to 6000 feet in elevation,
 and are covered with forests of oak, chestnut, and
fir, decorated with numberless varieties of rare orchids.
The northern route to the mines must be a dream of
beauty. The valleys of the mines themselves are lovely,
surrounded with hills of granite, gneiss, and limestone,
disintegrating masses of which form the lower spurs and
foothills, and close in the narrow line of central plain. It
is here, near the streams, that the ruby beds are found,
beneath layers of clay, gravel, and sand, which thicken to
20 feet or more. The ruby-bearing sand is generally
about 2 feet thick. This sand on being brought to the
surface is full of minute rubies, from amongst which the
larger are picked out after washing. The primitive
methods of 1886 have long given place to scientific
working, and rubies are evolved from the mass of disintegrating
 material forming the lower hills as well as from
the flats adjoining the beds of the streams. The lessees
of the mines under the Burmese Government paid
£20,000 annually for the right of working, and gave up
all the biggest rubies to the king. The company formed
soon after our occupation of Upper Burma originally
leased the mines for an annual payment of {30,000 to
Government, and one-sixth of the net profits on the
workings. Great as is the promise of such an underraking
 as the working of the chief sources of ruby supply
for the whole world, the difficulties that surround it are
not inconsiderable. Malaria, illicit smuggling, and local
labour disturbances have all to be reckoned with, to say