CHAPTER VIII
MINERALS
The very name of Burma is associated in our minds with rubies and other precious stones, and yet the combined value of the rubies, sapphires and spinels extracted from the mines in 1919 was not half that of the tin, not a quarter that of the tungsten or of the silver, less than a sixth of the value of the lead output, and less than one-sixteenth that of petroleum. Burma, although not a store-house to the fabulous extent ordinarily believed of precious stones, is undoubtedly the richest province in minerals of the Indian empire. It is now proposed to give an account of these minerals seriatim.
Burmese Amber varies in colour from a pale yellow to a dull brown, and resembles a variety found in Sicily in the possession of a peculiar fluorescence. It is heavier, harder and tougher than that obtained on the Baltic coast. It is conjectured that the resin from which it was formed exuded from trees which flourished during the "gulfs" period described in the preceding chapter (Miocene). It is found in the Hukong valley in the extreme north of Burma, where it is dug out of a blue clay at depths of from 20 to 40 feet below the surface. Mandalay absorbs most of the material, which is sold in the form of rosaries, ear-cylinders and other ornaments. When rubbed with a non-conducting cloth amber acquires a charge of electricity, our word for the latter being derived from elektron, the Greek word for amber. Its use for pipe, cigar and cigarette mouthpieces is due to a belief of the Turks, whose custom it is to pass the pipe from one to another, that no infection can be transmitted.
Antimony in the form of the sulphide, stibnite, is known in the hills behind Moulmein, and also in the Southern Shan
