Page:Provincial geographies of India (Volume 4).djvu/83

VIII] farmer to buy the stone at his own valuation. In 1921, 3815 cwts. of jadeite were extracted. White, green and blood-red varieties are obtained, and most of the output is sold to Chinese who attach magic properties to the stone. The green variety is the best known.

The Lead-silver mine of Bawdwin in the Northern Shan States is one of the richest of its kind in the world. Numerous old Chinese workings are to be seen scattered

round the neighbourhood, and, according to an old inscription, were being operated as long ago as 1412, during the Ming dynasty. The extensive lines of entrenchments still to be seen on the heights of the surrounding hills, testify to the tenacity with which these old mines were held against invading Kachins from the north. The ore for the most part consists of a silver-bearing sulphide