The Imperial Gazetteer of India
Meyer, William Stevenson, Sir, 1860-1922.
Burn, Richard, Sir, 1871-1947.
Cotton, James Sutherland, 1847-1918.
Risley, Sir Herbert Hope, 1851-1911.
....................................
New edition, published under the authority of His Majesty's secretary of state for India in council.
Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1908-1931 [v. 1, 1909]

241 NORTHERN SHAN STATES
believed to' be good fuel. A seam of lignite was recently struck
in the Nam Pat valley in South Hsenwi State in -the course of road=
making. Tourmaline mines are worked on both sides of 'the Nam
Pai north of the town of M6nglong in Hslpaw, where well-rounded
pebbles of black tourmaline are not uncommon, sometimes attaining
the size of a walnut. Rose-pink tourmaline, on the other hand, is
much rarer, and is comparatively seldom met with. Salt is manufactured
at Mawhho (Bawgyo) in: the Hsipaw State. The Bawgyo salt.well is
said to have been worked for the last 5oo. years, and expert' opinion
has pronounced the brine from it. to be the richest known in Burma.,
Unfortunately it has a bitter taste, which hinders its sale when other
salt can be procured. A good deal of the Bawgyo salt is sold,- how=
ever, in the Shan States, in parts where Mandalay salt is too expensive
and where Yimnan block salt does not penetrate.
Silver and lead mines were formerly worked at Bawdwingyi in the
Tawngpeng State, and at Ko'nghka on the northern aspect of Loi
Leng in the South Hsenwi State. The Bawdwingyi mines are situated
in valley io miles -south-east of the village of Katlwi, and 5 or "6 miles
north of Pangyang: Silver, lead, and copper used'to be extracted
from these mines, the last only in small' quantities.' The hills' are
completely honey-combed with shafts, horizontal and perpendicular,
in some of which human skeletons in chains have` been discovered.
It is said that z,ooo Chinamen were engaged in mining here'; and
the ruins of stone houses, extending along the valley, and long rows
of beehive-shaped smelting ovens and Chinese stone bridges, in perfect
preservation, speak to the energy with which these mines were exploited
a generation ago. A prospecting licence for this area was issued to
a Rangoon firm early in rgo2. Silver is said to have been' worked
in South Hsenwi also, and in the Wa country east of M6nghka; Lead
is found in East Mangl6n, and in the Wa States of Loili>n and Santong.
Iron is extracted at Hsoptung in the sub-State of M6ngtttng in Hslpaw y
and gold occurs near Hopai in the Lantau circle, South' Hsenwi, as
well as in the streams tributary to the Salween. For years Burmans
and Shans have cherished the story that gold in dust, nuggets, and
veins was to be found in the Nam Yang Long, which runs into the
Nam Hka through the Wa Pet Ken. ' A visit made to the locality in
1897. failed to disclose any traces of :gold. ~ Gold is however, certainly
washed from the sands of the neighbouring stream; 'in fact, gold-dust
is nowhere a rarity in th'e Shan States, and washing is regularly carried
on at many points along the Salween:' A mining lease for 3�84 square
miles in the valley of the Namma, a small tributary of the Salween,, has
been granted to a Rangoon' firm. The project is to obtain gold by
dredging and hydraulic methods. Saltpetre is obtained from bats'
guano, collected from the limestone caverns common throughout the

Graphics file for this page >> Sourthern Shan State